
The Origin of Subjectivity 
in Hindu Thought 

ETHEL MAY KITCH 



PHILOSOPHIC STUDIES 

ISSUED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 
PHILOSOPHY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

NUMBER 7 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
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The Department of Philosophy of the University of Chicago issues 
a series of monographs in philosophy, including ethics, logic, and meta- 
physics, aesthetics, and the history of philosophy. The successive 
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THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY 
IN HINDU THOUGHT 



THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY 
IN HINDU THOUGHT 



BY 

ETHEL MAY KITCH 




THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 






Copyright 19 17 By 
The University of Chicago 



All Rights Reserved 



Published August 1917 



AUG 17 1917 



©CI.A470691 

Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. 



*-v 



FOREWORD 

This book is the outcome of a long interest in Hindu life and 
thought. My gratitude is due Professor Simon Frazer Mac- 
Lennan, professor of philosophy in Oberlin College, for suggesting 
investigation in this field with a view to a social interpretation. 
I wish also to express my sincerest appreciation to Professor George 
Herbert Mead and Dr. Walter Eugene Clark, of the University 
of Chicago, for assistance and advice in making the investigation 
and for direction in the construction of the paper. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction n 

i. Isolation of Indian Thought 
Difficulties of Research 

2. Indian Thought Essentially Religious 

Contrasted Briefly with Hebrew, Greek, Roman Thought 

3. Literature Used — Religious Hymns, Epics, Dramas, etc. 

Analysis of the Vedas 

4. The Problem: Cause of Chief Characteristics of Indian Thought - 
Subjectivity 

a) Self-consciousness — Its Rise 

(1) Objective — Development of Physical Object 

(2) Subjective 

(a) Failure to Gain Expression of Object of Knowledge or 
Desire 

(b) Content Not Universalized or Socialized 

b) The Caste System an Unyielding Social Barrier 

(1) Western v. Eastern Indian Civilization 

(2) Conservation v. Innovation 

(3) Brahman v. Kshatriyan 

c) Result of the Opposition 

(1) Subjectivity — Upanishad 

(2) Doctrine of Illusion — Vedanta System 

(3) Doctrine of Negation or Nirvana — Buddhism 

5. Brief of Chapters 

CHAPTEB 

I. Vedism 16 

1. Aryan Invasion 4000 (?)-i5oo B.C. 

Characteristics and Organization 

2. Vedic Pantheon 

a) General Characteristics 

b) Comparison with Mazdan Religion 

c) Chief Gods 

(1) Indra 

(2) Agni 

(3) Varuna 

3. Nature of Rig- Veda Hymns 

4. Conditions of Social Life 

a) Unusual Primitive Conditions 



8 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

b) Indian Conditions 

(i) Warrior — the Leader 

(2) Priest — Proxy Worship 

(3) Herdsman 

c) Developing Class- Consciousness of Priest 

II. Transition from Vedism to Brahmanism 25 

1. Indian Thought Shifts from Objective to Subjective Tendency 

a) Literature: Rig- Veda, Books I and X, Atharva-Veda, 
Brahmanas 

b) Cause 

(1) Territorial Change 

(2) Political Change 

(3) Social Change 

(4) Conceptual Change 

(o) Developing of the Conception of Brahman 

i) Objective "Barhis" — Hymns, Prayer, Spell 
ii) Subjective — Sacred Learning 
iii) Immanent — Brihaspati — Brahman 
(b) Monistic Tendency 

i) Confused Characteristics 
ii) Dual Gods 

iii) Many Gods under One Name 
iv) Physical Monism — Purusha 
v) Beginning of Spiritual Monism — Brihaspati 
vi) Immanent (?) Self — Brahman 

2. Vedism v. Brahmanism 

a) Religion — Magical and Ceremonial 

Sacrifice — Center of Interest 

b) Priest — Chief Social Figure 

Development of Vedic Studentship — Brahmacarin 

c) Development of Caste through Social Control by Priest 

III. Theory of the Sacrifice 37 

1. Sacrifice — Absorbing Feature of Early Indian Worship 

a) Nature of the Sacrifice 

(1) Origin — Totemism — Food Ceremonial 

(a) Stimulation of Food and Drink 

(b) Stimulation of the Incarnation or Prayer 

(2) Purpose — Medium for Acquiring an Object of Desire 

(3) Result — Re-creation of Individual and God 

b) Theory of Sacrifice 

(1) Sacred Animal — the God Worshiped 

(2) The God Eaten by the Sacrificer 

(3) Through Eating the Food and Drinking the "Libation" the 
Sacrificer is Exhilarated, Energized in Body and Mind 



CONTENTS 9 

CHAPTER PAGE 

(4) A New " Vision " of the God Conceived in this State 

(5) Sacrifice — the Vehicle for Development of Conceptions 
of Deity 

2. Sacrificial or Ritualistic Brahmanism 

Ritualistic Brahmanism an Arrested Development 

Comparison with Hebrew and Egyptian Priesthood 

IV. Philosophical Brahmanism 48 

1. Innovations from Kshatriyans 

a) Atman Conception 

(1) Breath— Air 

(2) Life — Breath — Life-Principle 

(3) Energy or Power of Life-Principle 

(4) Spirit of Sickness 

(5) Living Body — Cosmic Energy 

(6) Self— the Thinking, Moving Self ( ?)— Kshatriyan Idea 

(7) Self — the Thinking Subject — Unknowable — Brahman 

b) The Upanishads Record This Conflict of (6) and (7) 

2. Transition from Sacrifice to Sacred Knowledge 

a) Gods Take on Positive Function 

b) Priests Become Human Gods through Knowledge of Sacrifice 

c) Knowledge Better than Good Works (Sacrifice) 

(1) Each Has Same Dialectic 

(2) Each Has Same Social Value 

d) Meaning of Object of Knowledge and Object of Desire 

e) Failure to Be Realized by Kshatriyan 

Warrior Has Lost His Social Function 
/) Success of Brahman Definition 

Increased Emphasis of Brahman Functions 

3. Result — Atman Becomes an Abstraction 

4. Vedanta System Continues Argument 

a) Subject, the Only Reality 

b) Objective World an Illusion — Maya 

5. Social Situation 

a) Kshatriyan Builds Independent Philosophical Conception of 
Atman 

b) This Conception Confiscated by the Brahmans 

c) Tribal Supremacy of Kurus Emphasized Individuality for 
Warriors 

d) Possible Conflict of Brahman Supremacy and Kshatriyan 
Initiative 

6. Religious Mechanism of Philosophical Brahmanism 

Contemplation 

(1) Meaning 

(2) Comparison with Sacrifice as Vehicle of Transformation 

(3) Result — "Brahman Is Atman" 



10 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

7. Failure of Innovation 

a) Class of Brahmans Prevents Reconstruction 

b) Pantheon an Arrested Development — No Power of Recon- 
struction Here 

V. Later Innovations 64 

1. Authority of Buddhist Life 

2. Buddhist Legend 

3. Buddhist Literature 

4. Buddhist Doctrine 

a) Impermanence of Individual 

b) Sorrow Inherent in Individuality 

c) Unreality of an Abiding Principle 

5. Buddha's Social Code 

Meaning of Salvation — Nirvana 

6. The Ten Fetters 

7. The Object of Desire— Vital Facts of Life 

8. Impossible Ideal in Indian Caste System 

0. Suppression of Desire — Control of Senses and Feelings 

10. Materialists Destroy Both Body and Soul 

11. Transmigration Theory 

12. Fall of Buddhism 

a) Internal Causes — Overemphasis on Repression of Self 

b) External Causes — Opposition of Brahmanism 

13. Jainism and Other Heretical Religions 

14. These Innovations Rennished by Brahmans 

VI. Orthodox Developments 71 

1. Positive Changes Crept into the Mahabhdrata 

a) Changes of Personnel of Pantheon 

b) Numerous Inferior Features Come into Popular Religion 

(1) Asceticism Emphasized 

(2) Fetishism 

(3) Idolatry 

(4) Ancient Rites and Superstitions 

c) Vaisnavism 

d) Bhakti Idea of Krishna Worship 

e) Rudra-Civa Worship 

/) Paradoxical Nature of the Epic 

2. Secular Awakening — 400-1000 a.d. 

a) Science 

b) Literature 

c) Philosophy 

3. Another Political Centralization 

4. Warrior Functions through the Brahmans 

VII. Summary 75 

Bibliography 80 



INTRODUCTION 

One of the most fascinating and yet most neglected fields of 
human experience is that known as Indian or Hindu thought. 
Hemmed in by the Himalaya Mountains and the Indian Sea, 
it existed in comparative isolation from both oriental and occi- 
dental thought until the invasion of the English in the eighteenth 
century. Even the hardiest and most persistent investigator has 
been baffled by this proline product of more than thirty centuries, 
extending from the migrations of an Aryan branch into the Indus 
Valley some ten or fifteen centuries before the Christian era to 
the conquest of Lord Clive. However, a century of arduous 
research by Max Muller, Oldenberg, Geldner, Rhys Davids, and 
other adventurous spirits has blazed * pathways into this fasci- 
nating jungle. The disagreement of these pioneers makes it, 
nevertheless, sometimes rather unsafe ground for the novice, who 
must always proceed with caution and trembling. 

But the pursuit proves too interesting. Hindu thought is 
essentially social and also universally religious. The social is 
religious and the religious social. Indian thought passes through 
a variety of forms, but this characteristic is always outstanding. 
It has almost nothing that could be classed as strictly secular. 
No Burbank of human experience could produce a species more 
delightful to the modern religious theorist. It differs from Hebrew 
life in a comparative absence of the moral element; from the Greek 
in its lesser definition of its god-forms, in its polytheism, and in 
its want of interest in science; from the Roman in its lack of initia- 
tive and of ability for organization; and from all Western thought 
in its emphasis upon the subjective phase and its neglect of the 
individual as such. 

The means of investigation in this field is itself restricted. 
Because of India's isolation foreign commentary prior to the 
tenth century a.d. is of small amount; Megasthenes, the Mace- 
donian ambassador to the court of Chandragupta in the fourth 
century B.C., has left us some records of Hindu life of that period. 



12 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

Also Chinese travelers to India have given a description of Bud- 
dhist India. The internal presentation of its thought is limited 
by its lack of treatises on history and science. The materials to 
be used are the religious hymns, the sacrificial formulae, the law- 
books, the epics, the dramas, the fables, the lyrics, and the philo- 
sophical treatises. For the sake of simplicity and clearness it 
may be advisable to indicate the arrangement of the earliest por- 
tion of the Sanskrit literature — the Vedas. The core of these is 
the Rig- Veda, a collection of ten books of sacrificial hymns; it 
is followed by the Sama-Veda, the metrical version of these hymns; 
by the Yajur-Veda, sacrificial formulae; and by the Atharva-Veda, 
magic charms and spells. Each Veda has special divisions, and 
these cover a considerable period of time, showing definite change 
and development. These divisions may be indicated as follows: 

Veda— 

a) Mantra: Mere hymn -poetry. 

b) Brahmana: The text in prose — an interpretation or explanation 

of the Mantra, 
i. Aranyaka: Forest Books. 
2. Upanishads: Philosophical books. 

c) Stitra ("thread"): A syllabus of the long Brahmana. 
i. £rauta: Public type of sacrifice — king's sacrifice 

2. Grihya: Minor sacrifice — marriage, death, etc. 

3. Dharma: Concerning relations towards fellow-men and gods — 

duties. 

The highest interest in all the literature is that which centers 
around the essential characteristics of later vedic thought — its 
subjectivity. This subjectivity, with its attendant pessimism and 
doctrine of illusion, form a development different from that of 
any other country. Hence our problem becomes an investiga- 
tion of the sources and conditions which could produce such a 
peculiar type of experience. 

Subjectivity is a type of self-consciousness due to a persistent 
thwarting of individual experience. Consciousness does not ap- 
pear in the experience process until an obstacle arises, that is, 
until there is a lapse in the process; instinct and habit are illus- 
trations of such a continuous experience process. But when the 
experience process is blocked, this suspension permits its separation 



INTRODUCTION 13 

into parts, and it becomes what we call the knowledge process. 
Such an opposition of parts is necessary to the rise of self- 
consciousness; every individual consciousness must become aware 
of something set over against itself before it can be aware of itself. 
These parts of the opposition we call the subject and the object. 
However, this self-consciousness can be expressed in two ways: 
If this opposition is mediated, the synthesis that results is a rela- 
tionship of unity in difference, the unity of the act. In the unity 
of the act the object of knowledge or the object of desire is cre- 
ated as such from the reactions of the subject; this furnishes a 
mechanism for the control of the object, and a voluntary, natural 
accommodation on the part of the subject. It is not merely the 
definiteness of an object that permits us to act, but the ability to 
act defines the object, makes it more concrete. The individual 
in this mediation does not lose his identity or his form of expres- 
sion; he expresses himself through his construction of the physical 
object, which in turn is built up by the reactions of the self. The 
knowledge process, then, is a continuous interaction of subject and 
object when we have an objective type of thought. When the 
impulse to movement, of which this object of knowledge or desire 
is the initial phase, attains fulfilment, it becomes universalized, 
that is, a part of the world outside of the individual. In a con- 
crete situation the process would be expressed as the object of 
knowledge or desire becoming socialized; thus the individual 
becomes a real, active, concrete element within his social group, 
and his experience is taken over by the group-consciousness. The 
individual consciousness now possesses a social value through the 
individual's ability to initiate and organize group experience. 

On the other hand, if this opposition in the experience process 
cannot be mediated, cannot become an action, the subject turns 
back within itself. The result is a subjective self -consciousness. 
In its social aspect this means the thwarting of the universalizing 
or socializing process, and experience must turn within the indi- 
vidual and there reform the object of knowledge or desire. The 
result is either the rise of a system of control within the individual 
in terms of other ideas and desires or the suppression altogether 
of this idea or emotion which cannot be universalized. The meaning 



14 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY HINDU IN THOUGHT 

of this suspended impulse is that eventually it kills itself or is 
annihilated; on the social side the individual fails to find an evalu- 
ation of himself in the group-consciousness. 

This is what happened in India. A fixed caste system fur- 
nished the unyielding opposition against which the self was forced. 
In the northern and eastern parts of India, where migration and 
conquests were still active, the warrior controlled conditions. 
In the older and more permanent civilization of Western India 
the warrior had lost his function, and the Brahman became the 
chief figure. Here the priests dominated everything. Thus all 
orthodox doctrines arose in the western center of Brahmanism, 
and the reconstructive tendencies are attributed to the warriors 
in the eastern section. The Brahman, not being opposed in the 
expressing of his function, did not 'feel problems that must con- 
front the Kshatriyans. His loyalty to caste, his indifference to, 
and even unconsciousness of, the others' problem, served as an 
effective check on the ideal and desire that the king chose to real- 
ize. The king was a figurehead, not a real ruler. It was the 
history of this opposition which set the theme for all later litera- 
ture and which was the history of a suspended ideal that was never 
universalized in Indian Society. The result was the doctrine of 
illusion in the Vedanta system and the pessimism and negation 
of Buddhism. The trend of subjectivity was in a continuous line, 
fatal and predetermined as long as the Brahmans were at the head 
of the caste and not aroused to self-consciousness. 

In chapter i is traced the early tendency toward an objective 
development of nature and the person; the following chapter 
shows its transition to a philosophical interest and the rise of a 
subjective interest through emphasis upon the class-consciousness 
of the Brahman and the function of this group. This class- 
consciousness was developed through the sacrifice, which was the 
chief expression of the priest's function, and also through the form 
of education and initiation for this duty, Brahmacarya. Thus 
the priests were set aside as peculiarly fitted for this service and 
as particularly sanctified by it. All of this emphasized and helped 
crystallize the class system which was rapidly arising from dis- 
tinctions in occupation and color (conquered Dra vidian). 



INTRODUCTION 15 

In chapter iv the social system and the religious formulation 
have arrived at a condition of arrested development. The first 
attempt to express the individual desire for new function and 
meaning comes in the Kshatriyan doctrine of the self as the know- 
ing subject. The texts hint at a self which is to find all its impulses 
and activities real. The sense-world is true and valuable. But 
the Brahmans have taken all the flavor out of these passages by 
identifying this self with an All- God which cannot be known. 

The Vedanta is the conclusion of this theory. It asserts that 
the true self is the unknown and unknowable inner being. This 
self through ignorance becomes united with the senses, but the 
world which this union depicts is unreal, therefore an illusion. 

Buddhism and the heretical movements are discussed in chap- 
ter v. The Buddhists accept no god and eventually destroy the 
conscious self. Their system of control of self assists in bringing 
harmony into this life, but is of no value for the future existence 
in Nirvana. The materialists conclude the negative movement 
by destroying everything except existence in this life. 

Chapter vi records briefly the positive developments as found 
in the epic and the renaissance of the Christian era, which held 
vital possibilities that were never realized. 



CHAPTER I 

VEDISM 

When the curtain rises on Indian life, the Aryans are in migra- 
tion, having come through the mountain passes of the western 
spurs of the Himalayas, into the Punjab. The early hymns of 
the Rig- Veda depict them in constant warfare with the native 
Dra vidians — a dark-skinned, primitive people. They lived in 
tribes or classes under the leadership of chieftains or rajahs and 
possessed definite nomadic tendencies. Probably a small amount 
of grain was raised, or else the wild grain was collected for food; 
but their produce was butter (ghee) and milk, and their universal 
occupation cattle-raising. A few horses were known; these seem 
to have belonged to the rajahs and warriors and were used with 
chariots or for occasional sacrifice. Homes are mentioned — possi- 
bly their own more or less temporary dwelling-places or those of 
the natives. Jewels, gold, metal-work, weapons of metal, and 
cooking utensils were known. Some wild animals are spoken of — 
a fact which helps to determine Aryan occupation of the Punjab 
at this time — and there is also direct reference to the river Indus 
and its five tributaries. Holderness, speaking of modern India, 
says: 

The Indo-Aryan type is met with chiefly in the Punjab, Rajputana, 
and Kashmir. It approaches closely to that ascribed to the traditional Aryan 
colonists of India. 1 .... The Rajput clans are the purest specimens of the 

Aryan race in India. The Rajputs are there as rulers and overlords 

The cultivating classes and trading classes are of Dravidian and mixed Dra- 
vidian type. And still lower down in the social scale, in the recesses of the 
hills and jungles, the pure Dravidian is found in the person of the Bheel. 2 

The date of the invasion is quite impossible to establish; dates 
ranging from 4000 to 1500 B.C. have been suggested. The date 
of the collection of the hymns was undoubtedly somewhat later, 
the most acceptable date being between 1500 and 1000 B.C. The 

1 Holderness, Peoples and Problems of India, p. 69. 

2 Ibid., p. 74. 

16 



VEDISM 17 

hymns were written by special priests or families of priests and 
were to be used at the sacrifice; they were finally collected by a 
developing priesthood as a permanent and efficient means of 
approaching the gods. There are 1,028 hymns in the Rig- Veda. 
A study of their meter and arrangement shows a long development. 
Books II- VIII are accepted as the first collection, and Books IX, 
I, and X as later additions. Therefore our first statement of their 
religious conceptions will be from the point of view of the earlier 
collection, Books II-VIII. The Rig- Veda has always been held 
as the source of religious authority; it was given as a revelation to 
the seers and is supposed to have existed from eternity. 

The pantheon of Vedism contains an infinite number of gods, 
but thirty-three may be taken as an approximation. The reason 
for this indefiniteness lies in the nature of the gods. Bloomfield 
classifies them as (1) prehistoric, (2) transparent, (3) translucent, 
(4) opaque, (5) abstract. Aside from the first type these indicate 
degrees of personification. But the gods are ill-defined and want- 
ing in distinction from each other. If it were not for the name in 
the hymn, it would be difficult to determine which god the Hindu 
worshiper intended to praise. Their qualities overlap and seem 
almost to merge into one being. These vague delineations sug- 
gest how poor were Hindu conceptions of an individual and indi- 
cate the intensity of the early group-consciousness which could 
so indure in the shifting conditions involved in the migration. The 
gods did not live in a family organization like the Greek gods, and 
the hymns are to the gods rather than about them. Undoubtedly 
consciousness centered in the clan, and not essentially in the family 
or the individual, though, as we have seen, the first step toward 
a consciousness has been taken. This meager mythology of the 
Rig- Veda may have come from a remote period. A comparison 
of the gods and the myths of the Mazdan religion with the Rig- 
Veda suggests what a long road these ideas must have traveled. 
A few words will show some of the associations that can be made: 
Andra-demon, Indra; Mithra, Mitra; haoma, soma; baresman, 
barhis; and zaotar, ho tar. The first two associations are gods; 
the two following, details of the sacrifice; and the last is a special 
priest. The function and importance of these gods vary in the 



18 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

two countries, indicating undoubtedly a considerable change in 
the Iranian or the Hindu people and possibly in both. Many of 
the Hindu deities are Persian demons, a fact which may indicate 
an ethical advance among the Persians beyond the originally com- 
mon belief. Usually the Hindu gods represented phases of nature 
that were significant to them, such as the rain, the sun, the wind, 
fire, water, heaven and earth, the dawn, and the storm. But it 
must be remembered at every point in this description that Vedism 
is an aristocratic religion, and it is in a later period that the first 
evidence of a popular religion appears. 

The god in ascendance in this early period was Indra; more 
than two hundred and fifty hymns were dedicated to him. He is 
boastful — a hearty warrior, representing great physical power, 
and a lusty eater and drinker. Here is a picture of all the com- 
bativeness, the animal spirits, the crudity, the braggadocio yet 
simplicity and directness of the Indo-Aryan chieftain; just a little 
fancy transplants him to Southern Europe and the fifth century 
and he becomes a marauding Goth. If any class supremacy exists 
in this period, it must surely belong to the burly warrior. Indra 
is a kind of Hercules — he conquers demons; he is, moreover, Lord 
of Heaven, maker of all things and identified with the sun. Muir 
points out that "a variety of vague and general epithets are lav- 
ished upon Indra." 1 

Without whom naught exists, Indra the Lofty One; 
In whom all heroic powers are combined; 
The Soma is within him, in his frame is vast strength, 
The thunder in his hand and wisdom in his head. 2 

He has been given more physical description than any other 
Hindu god; he has more definite personification. Like Zeus, he is 
the thundergod, the protector from earthy and aerial danger. 
Indra then can be said to be the projection of the Rig- Veda con- 
ception of the Indian social group. 

From the point of the number of hymns the next god in impor- 
tance was Agni. Some two hundred hymns were his portion. 

1 Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 83. 

2 Rig- Veda. II. 16. 2 (Griffith translation). 



VEDISM 19 

Agni has three forms: the heavenly fire, the atmospheric fire, and 
the terrestrial fire. He is a rival of Indra in questions of power 
and influence. 

Praise of the Ashura, high Imperial Ruler, the Manly One in whom the folk 

shall triumph, 
I laud his deeds who is as strong as Indra, 

And lauding, celebrate the Fort-Destroyer, Sage, Sign, Food, Light, 
They bring him from the mountain, the Blessed Sovran of the earth and 

heaven. 1 

Agni and Soma are two direct physical facts which are given wor- 
ship. They are features of the sacrifice and undoubtedly testify to 
the importance of the sacrifice to the early Aryan. The Soma, 
it should be stated, was a libation poured over the sacrifice and 
kept for the priests who partook of the feasts with the gods. It 
was the juice pressed from the soma-plant and allowed to ferment. 
Agni seems to typify the priest spirit, but it is unsafe to base a 
theory of class rivalry on the "friendly" contentions of the gods 
Indra and Agni. 

Varuna was the god of next importance in popularity; twelve 
hymns were dedicated to him. Considerable controversy ranges 
about the significance and development of this deity. Varuna is 
characterized by quietness, repose, and dignity — features wanting 
in the other gods. The name is associated with the Sanskrit word 
rta, which means "to go," from which is derived the idea of a regu- 
lar going. Varuna is, then, the god of the cosmic order — this is 
cosmic law and becomes the god of the moral order also. Olden- 
berg gives Varuna a Semitic origin, because he is the only god 
with moral characteristics. 2 

"Loose me from sin as from a bond that binds me; 
May we swell, Varuna, thy spring of Order." 3 

"Far from me remove all danger; 
Accept me graciously thou Holy Sovran."4 

Later Varuna becomes the sky-god. Many later passages make 
this reference, and Varuna becomes linked with Mitra, the sun- 
god. Professor Roth contends that Varuna belongs to an older 

1 Rig-Veda. VII. 6. 1, 2. 3 R._v. II. 28. 5. 

3 Cf. Oldenberg, Religion des Vedas. « R.-V. II. 28. 6. 



20 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

class of gods, a more spiritual and supersensuous religion (possibly 
of the Indo-Iranian period), which was gradually superseded by 
the nature-gods, with Indra developing as they advanced into 
the Punjab. Furthermore, Indra was scarcely known in an earlier 
period, and then it was with quite a different nature. This is 
also made to account for the assumption of a nature-form by Varuna 
later. 1 

On the other hand, Professor Muir insists that, while the hymns 
have some passages suggestive of rivalry and change, there is not 
sufficient evidence to warrant such a contention. 2 But this much 
is of interest to us: Varuna stood alone in the capacity of ruler 
of a moral order and punisher of sin. He is the Hindus' nearest 
approach to a monotheistic and ethical conception of God. We 
must assume either that many hymns have been lost or that the 
god is of minor importance. This latter would imply small sense 
of sin or responsibility. Later conditions justify this assumption — 
the thing that was "right" was an objective affair, a successful 
act, and not the spiritual attitude. The Greek boy who was 
honored if he could steal successfully was kin to the Hindus. 

The remainder of the pantheon was constituted of more or less 
limited personifications of natural forces. The Adityas were sky- 
gods; Vayu and Vata, two forms of the wind; Parjana, the thun- 
dering rain-god; Ushas, the dawn; Pushan, a solar deity, protector 
and multiplier of cattle; the two great sun-gods are Surya, the shin- 
ing one, and Savitar, the awakener. Vishnu, the mighty one, and 
Q iva, the destroyer, were gods just known in this period, but des- 
tined for later popularity. It is interesting to note that every 
class had its representative in the pantheon — Indra for the Kshat- 
riyans, Agni for the Brahmans, and Pushan for the Vaicyas. The 
minor position of Pushan is to be expected, for this third class is 
granted small mention in the hymns and could not have been in 
any sense a class with initiative and power. 

The Rig- Veda hymns had in them very little of direct, warm, 
and vital experience; they were ritualistic, practical, and wholly 
utilitarian. The popular poetical inspirations of an earlier tra- 

1 Journal of the German Oriental Society, VI, 76. 

2 Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, V, 121. 



VEDISM 21 

dition had lost vitality and emotion and had degenerated into 
a conscious tool, merely a medium of approach to the gods. The 
gods were to be appeased rather than revered. To give them food, 
drink, and flattery was better than to be good. In fact, this was 
the only good that the Hindus knew; no recognition was granted to 
the spirit and intention of the act. The consequence alone was the 
conscious problem. Consequently there was no element of pro- 
pitiation for sin, only an offering of material goods to gain the favor 
of the deities, who would grant further wealth, success, and happi- 
ness. It was a system of barter, with the priest as middleman. 
The Vedic order of proxy worship called for no response from the 
sacrificer, except in terms of cattle for the priest, and naturally 
became largely mechanical. No warmth of feeling like that in 
the Hebrew psalms was found in the Rig- Veda. The worship 
that is mechanical for the worshiper escapes criticism; as long as 
it can carry on the illusion of effectiveness through its elaboration 
and complexity the worshiper is satisfied. The more complicated 
the service appears to an unquestioning onlooker, the more mys- 
tical and often the more real is its effect. While the Rig- Veda is 
thoroughly objective in its earlier portion, there is much that is 
mystical and unintelligible, portentous of undefined problems, and 
half-conscious of the ineffectiveness of the Vedic religious system. 
But this unrest was destined to a fulfilment that culminated in a 
system that warped or smothered all self-expression or budding 
hope. 

At this time the three chief classes of society — Brahmans, 
Kshatriyans, and Vaicyas — lived in comparative freedom with 
each other. What may have been their primitive condition and 
how far they had progressed history gives no clue. However, 
from analogy to other primitive culture, a study of the conditions 
of life in the Rig- Veda permits us to project something of their 
past and to attempt an explanation of their present and future. 
They belonged to definite tribes; the stories of the Mahdbhdrata 
seem to indicate that tribal organization was pretty strong. The 
expression of the community spirit in a stationary tribe is by 
means of its occupations, such as hunting and fishing and crude 
handwork — -and in times of defense. Ideals are caught up from 



22 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

all phases of life and focused in the emotional and dramatic 
activities of the religious ceremonial. These ideals are not con- 
scious possessions of the tribe; the closest approach to thought- 
discriminations and definitions are in the social concepts, the 
so-called " collective representations," and these, too, are outside of 
the individual's conscious development. The American Indian, the 
Australian native, and many African tribes exhibit these charac- 
teristics. Attempts to deal with nature, human or non-human 
(for primitive peoples make no distinction), are by means of magic. 
This likewise is an unconscious process — unconscious at least from 
the standpoint of being a solution. This method has effectiveness 
only so far as it is applied under the hypnotic influence of com- 
plete group participation. 1 

Differentiation comes into this tribal unity through contact 
with other tribes in times of defense, possibly arising out of scanty 
food supply in the territory of the aggressor. Also one member of 
the tribe becomes distinguished as leader in war or in the magic 
ceremonies, and this means that he has more of the vital principle, 
the "mana" of the tribe. He becomes then sanctified, or a being 
in some measure set apart. The captive taken in war, when not 
killed, is given the most undesirable service of the tribe. In these 
two types are found the beginnings, the top and bottom rounds of 
a social ladder. 

The Indo-Aryans when they first appear in Sanskrit literature 
have only such remnants of this stationary life as magic, cere- 
monial, and taboo. They are no longer stationary but nomadic. 
A comparison of Indian and Iranian mythology indicates that a 
considerable advance from early group types had been made before 
the separation of these two branches of Aryan people. Possibly 
both were nomadic people. Out of this nomadic existence and 
constant warfare new forms of social classification have sprung. 
A shifting social situation is always coincident with flexibility of 
thought and presents opportunities of reconstruction and progress. 
This condition lends itself to an appreciation of individuality. The 
meager tendency toward personification of the gods and their 
attendant caprice reflects this social opportunity. But it was 

1 Cf. Levy-Bruhl, Les Fonctions mentales dans les sociites inferieures. 



VEDISM 23 

destined to measure its own defeat. The warrior found his func- 
tion more and more limited by the press of such circumstances 
as the guerilla warfare and the advance into the Punjab Valley. 
The tribe does not have opportunity to carry on its religious cere- 
monials and feasts as a community; it begins to lose its collective 
spiritual experience. A system of proxy worship fur the chieftains 
and warriors is set up; the medicine-men and magicians of the tribe 
increase, because each leader needs his priest to protect him and 
absolve him from the taboo of the enemy through these proxy 
ceremonies. The long ceremonies (the horse sacrifice) must have 
been carried on in the absence of the warrior. It might be noted 
here that the horse sacrifice was the privilege of the warrior and 
the rajah only. Some insist that this had as its cause economic 
conditions — none but a king or a chieftain could afford a horse ; but 
may it not have a significant bearing upon the usefulness and 
necessity of the horse for the warrior ? This proxy worship tended 
to develop the dependence of the warrior class upon the priests, 
for it was the ceremonial that brought success and happiness. In 
so far as the priest was successful he gained in power over the 
warrior, and his consciousness of himself as an effective and impor- 
tant instrument was set over against that of the warrior who 
depended upon him. This growing class-consciousness was indi- 
cated even in the earlier hymns of the Rig- Veda. Some of the 
priests or rishis had already attained renown for their skill; one 
of them was even looked upon as the founder of the race — the 
Hindu Adam — a kind of creator; but no priest was as yet classed 
with the gods, a misfortune which befell him in the Atharva-Veda. 
The third Aryan class — the Vaicyas — was the commissary 
department of this roving army. Undoubtedly the less fit, those 
inferior in wit and energy, formed this class. They were the herds- 
men, and probably with the women the collectors of the harvest. 
It was again the press of circumstances — their roving, warlike 
state — that forced the food production or collection upon a special 
class. There is no further light upon the condition of the Vaicyas, 
for the only source of description has come from the hands of the 
priests, in the production of whose consciousness the herdsmen 
seem to have played little or no part. This result was but natural; 



24 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

the priest derived his food and property from the warrior as pay- 
ment for gaining the favor of the gods for him; the warrior was 
served with meat and grain by the Vaicyas to whom he furnished 
protection from the enemy and the forces of nature; therefore it 
was only indirectly that the priest and the herdsman were related. 
The warrior came to consciousness of himself and his social 
function through his relation to the Brahmans, on whom he was 
dependent, and the Vaicyas, who bore the lesser value for him. 
With the conquest there came to be a fourth class — the conquered 
Dravidians, who were called Sudras and were practically slaves. 
Taken all in all, the hymns of the Rig- Veda point to this era as 
fairly flexible ; the taboo of the social class existed only with respect 
to the conquered class; the Brahmans, the Kshatriyans, and Vaic- 
yas were united against their common foe, the native Dra vidian. 
The caste system incipient in this social order is not realized until 
they are released from this common danger and begin to experi- 
ence the infusion of native elements. 



CHAPTER II 
TRANSITION FROM VEDISM TO BRAHMANISM 

To the sporadic investigator Indian thought is the symbol 
of quaint mysteries fringing about the ideas of God and the soul, 
the long journeys of the soul in transmigration from animal to 
animal or man, and its unique technique tending to a life of sub- 
jective, negative, and pessimistic countenance. This is quite at 
variance with the type of life described in the Rig- Veda; and at 
once there is projected the problem: How can such conflicting 
views have arisen among the same people in the same country ? 

This subjective, mystic form of Indian thought is first met in 
the Upanishads — the records of philosophical Brahmanism. Be- 
tween the Rig- Veda and the Upanishads is a period of probably 
five to ten centuries. The chief literature that comes in this 
period is made up of later additions to the Rig- Veda, Books IX, I, 
and X, the Atharva-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Brahmanas. 
Social, political, and territorial changes have also taken place. 
The last Rig- Veda hymns indicate that the Aryan tribes had now 
reached the Ganges Valley; here they had passed from a country 
where desert and river were obstacles to advance to a land of 
plenty — a land of hot sun and tropical products ready for the tak- 
ing. They passed from a period of struggle to one of ease. It was 
here also that the tribes came into confederation. The Mahd- 
bhdrata, a work undoubtedly centuries long in construction, relates 
the histories and struggles of the tribes which were finally united 
under the name Kurus. The composition of the epic is thought 
to have occupied the period from the fourth century B.C. to the 
fourth century a.d. Some of the Upanishads were as early as the 
sixth century B.C. and some came well within the Christian era. 
The bharata is mentioned several times in the Brahmanas. It 
therefore seems safe to conjecture that the coalescence of the tribes 
occurred at about the time that they set up permanent homes in 
the western portion of the Ganges Valley. Sanskrit authorities 
put the birthplace of the Atharva-Veda, of Brahmanism, and of 

25 



26 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

the epics — the Mahdbhdrata and the Rdmdyana — in this part of 
the Ganges Valley. The Rig- Veda religion was the revelation of 
poets and sages, utilized by a more or less flexible order of priests. 
The Upanishads show that the priesthood had now become a firmly 
established stratum of society, whose interests were jealously 
guarded, and whose sacredness was preserved by elaborate social 
restriction. We see, therefore, that this era of transition from an 
objective, free thought to a subjective and restricted thought was 
marked by a crystallization of social classes, by a unification of 
political groups, and by the establishment of permanent homes 
and activities. 

A. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTION OF " BRAHMAN " 

Not less marked were the changes in content of thought. This 
may be traced in three lines of development which converge and 
become identical in the Upanishads. These are: (i) the devel- 
opment of the Brahman idea, (2) the monistic tendency, and 
(3) the growth of the Atman idea. 

The word "brahman" is very old; it is found everywhere in 
the older collection of Rig- Veda hymns. Many scholars contend 
for or against its relation to the Zend word "baresman"; there is 
a considerable difficulty in the root-form transitions, but evidence 
on the whole seems to favor this association. 1 Whether or not we 
choose to accept this etymological relation, the meaning under- 
lying these two words is very similar. Each had originally an 
objective significance. "Thus baresman as a thing extended, lifted 
up, presented, is the sacred bundle of twigs in the hands of the 
Mazdan priest. There is abundant evidence in the texts of the 
Yasna that the uplifted baresman in the hands of the priest was 
regarded as an emblem of adoration, prayer, and praise." 2 Through- 
out the early Rig- Veda brahman is used as hymn or song or 
praise. 

"Him have I sung with my best song and praises [brahman], 
Indra of ancient birth and Everlasting. 
For prayer and songs [brahman] in him are concentrated: 
Let land wax mighty when addressed to Indra." 3 

1 Griswold, Brahman. 

2 Ibid., p. 13. 3R.-V. VI. 38. 3. 



TRANSITION FROM VEDISM TO BRAHMAN ISM 27 

"Of all our hymns [brahman] accept the invocation, 
List to my prayers and hear the songs I sing you." 1 

"To him your matchless mighty One, unconquerable Conqueror, 
Sing forth the prayer [brahman] which gods have given." 2 

Here there was no essential difference between prayer and hymn. 
Both were addresses to the gods, ready-made and established, and 
neither had subjective force. They were literally the thing lifted 
up to the gods. Brahman then was wholly objective and ritual- 
istic in its use. The Aryans' belief in the efficacy of brahman is 
illustrated by the following verse from the Rig- Veda: 

Now lauded for thine aid, Heroic Indra, 
Sped by our prayer, wax mighty in thy body. 3 

In the later collection of the tenth book there frequently appears 
the name of Brihaspati, which was equivalent to Brahmanaspati. 
This latter word meant "Lord of Prayer." The hymn or prayer 
used in the service came to have such significance, its power was 
so prime in the sacrifice that it became lifted to the rank of a 
divinity. Probably even here Brahman was altogether objective, 
though it undoubtedly points to its later use as the universal and 
underlying value of the spoken word. 

The Atharva-Veda presents us with a new conception — brah- 
man is now incantation or "spell"; also brahman is "worship." 
At this period the magic formula or charm was the method of wor- 
ship, hence the two words can be used interchangeably. In each 
case the sense of the word was still objective. 

"I thrust them forth with mind, forth with intent and incantation [brah- 
man]: forth with branch of tree, of acvattha, we thrust them."* 

"I sharpen up thy powers with incantation [brahman]." 5 

Likewise in this Veda brahman may mean the sacred word or text : 

" For whom the bright soma purifies itself, adorned with sacred words." 6 

In the fatapatha Brahmana the gods in a quarrel say to each other: 

Well then let us try to overcome one another by speech, by sacred unit 
[brahman]. 7 

1 R.-V. VI. 69. 4. 4 A.-V. III. 6. 8. 6 A.-V. IV. 24. 4. 

2 R.-V. VIII. 32. 27. s A.-V. III. 2. 5. 'Cat.Brah. 1.5. 4. 6. 

3 R.-V. VII. 19. 11. 



28 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

With the elaboration of the sacred texts and the necessity of 
teaching them, the subjective sense of the word emerges, and brah- 
man becomes sacred knowledge of these texts, sacred wisdom. 
From the neuter brahman early came the masculine brahman, 
signifying priest: thence the whole priesthood or social division 
came to be called Brahmans. The commentaries on the Vedas 
were called Brahmanas; the religion itself was Brahmanism. Each 
of these took on a sacredness because of its function in relation to 
brahman. The universality of the brahman idea developed, not 
only in the concrete deity form of Brahmanaspati, but in its con- 
crete relatedness to all things. "The brahman is invoker; the 
brahman is the sacrifice ; by brahman the sacrificial posts are set 
up; the officiating priest is born from brahman; within the brahman 
is put oblation. The brahman is the sacrificial spoon rilled with 
ghee; by brahman is the sacrificial hearth set up; and the brahman 
is the essence of the sacrifice — the priests that are oblation makers." 1 
Though Brahmanaspati was set up beside the nature-gods, he is 
less concrete than these earlier forms; hence it is not with much 
surprise that we follow its transition to mystic and abstract Brah- 
man. "Whoever knows the brahman in man, they know the 
exalted one." 2 "Where the brahman knowing gods worship the 
chief Brahman, whoso verily knoweth them eye to eye, he may be 
a Brahman, a knower." 3 But abstraction, universality, and unity 
were brought all together and approached the Upanishad concep- 
tion of Brahman, when the seer said: "He who is set over both 
what is and what is to be and everything and whoso alone is the 
heaven — to that chief brahman be homage." 4 The Brahmanas 
continue the preparing of the way for the Upanishad Brahman: 
' ' This Brahman has nothing before and nothing after it." 5 "Brah- 
man is the self -exis tent : reverence to Brahman." 6 

Thus has been traced a variety of changes in the import of 
brahman: its objective phases were hymns, texts, spells; its 
subjective, sacred word or wisdom — sacred knowledge; then came 
an approach to an immanent significance, kin to the Upanishad 

1 A.-V. XIX. 42. 1, 2. 4 a.-V. X. 8. 1. 

2 A.-V. X. 7. 17. s g a t. Brah. X. 3. 5. n. 

3 A.-V. X. 7. 24. 6 Cat. Brah. X. 6. 5. 9. 



TRANSITION FROM VEDISM TO BRAHMANISM 29 

idea. As corollaries to this development came the rise of (1) brah- 
man, the masculine, meaning priest; (2) brahmacarin, the vedic 
student; (3) Brahman, the priesthood and caste. These corol- 
laries represent a correspondent social remodeling of which it will 
be necessary to speak later. 

B. THE MONISTIC TENDENCY 

Not less significant was the growth of the monistic tendency; 
its roots likewise were found in the earlier parts of the Rig- Veda, 
and its culmination was reached in the Upanishads. A study of 
the gods of the Rig- Veda reveals their similarity and also the 
paucity of their qualifications. The gods were rich, powerful, 
adorable, healers of disease, preservers and givers of health and 
wealth. The functions of the particular god are not clearly set 
forth. The functions of one god may differ as in the case of Agni, 
who was a god of the hearth, god of the sacrifice, and god of the 
sun-fire. The Aryans make a very general classification of their 
gods, as follows: sky-gods and earth-gods, with sometimes gods 
of the atmosphere. The early tendency toward unity can be seen, 
not only in this indefiniteness of function, but in their dual gods — 
such as Varuna-Mitra and Indra-Varuna. The next step is found 
in the Vicve Devas — all-gods; here an overlapping function is rec- 
ognized for many gods. 

To what is One, sages give many a title: 
They call it Agni, Yarma, Mataricvan. 1 

In the additions to the Rig-Veda this one reality was usually rep- 
resented as a great giant, Purusha, sometimes called Prajapati. 
He was physical, cosmic substance from which the whole universe 
was constructed. This great unified objective Reality retained 
his naive form with great popularity throughout the Atharva- 
Veda and was recognized in the Brahmanas. With this type of 
god begin the great cosmological questions " Whence?" and 
"How?" Purusha was the victim of the sacrifice; from the drip- 
ping were formed the creatures, as well as hymns, spells, and 
charms. "The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms were 

1 R.-V. I. 164. 46. 



30 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

the Rajana made. His thighs became the Vaicya, from his feet 
the Sudra was produced. The moon was gendered from his mind, 
and from his eye the sun had birth; Indra and Agni from his mouth 
were born, and Vayu from his breath." 1 It is impossible to say 
whether any significance can be attached to the fact that the 
Brahman, Indra, Agni, and Vayu all arise from the same part of 
Purusha, but the coincidence, if it is such, is at least noteworthy. 
Griffith's footnote to his translation of this will illustrate the atti- 
tude: 

Purusha, embodied Spirit, or Man personified and regarded as Soul and 
original source of the universe, the personal and life-giving principle in all 
animated beings, is said to have a "thousand," that is, "innumerable heads," 
"eyes," and "feet," as being one with all created life. "A space ten figures 
wide": the region of the heart of man within which the soul was supposed to 
reside. Although as the Universal Soul he is enclosed in a space of narrow 
dimensions. 2 

This sort of explanation seems entirely too sophisticated. The 
majority of the hymns were still addressed to nature-gods, though 
there were a few hymns to Faith, Unanimity, New Life, and Liber- 
ality; and Desire, Fervor, and Asceticism were mentioned. But 
such spiritual and refined notes as these, that may be interpreted 
as striking, were quite counterbalanced by the hymns to the 
pressing-stones, hymns for the arresting of misfortune, for the 
removal of a rival, for the dissipation of bad dreams, and other 
magical performances. A hylozoistic theory of nature is much 
more likely under these conditions. The earliest Greek philoso- 
phers approached their problem in a similar fashion, as seen in 
Thales and Anaximander. The result for the Greeks was a 
beginning of science and philosophy; for the Hindu, of phi- 
losophy alone. That is to say, the construction side, science, was 
wanting. 

Creation was the central question in all these early cosmologi- 
cal discussions. The types of creation hypotheses were three: 
they are constructed in analogy to (i) architecture, (2) generation, 
(3) the sacrifice. But the greatest of these was the sacrifice. 

1 R.-V. X. 90. 

2 Griffith, The Hymns of the Rig-Veda, II, 527. 



TRANSITION FROM VEDISM TO BRAHMANISM 3 1 

"The gods as offering on the straw, 
Sprinkled the first-born Purusha; 
With him the gods made sacrifice, 
The Rishis and the Sadhayas." 1 

"And, O thou self-existent [Vicvakarmen] Strong one, 
In offering, offer up thine own self." 2 

The beauty and power of their creation conception is best shown in 
the one hundred and twenty-ninth hymn of the tenth book of the 

Rig-Veda: 

1. Then there was neither being nor non-being, 
Nor airy sphere nor heaven overreaching: 

What covered all ? and where ? in whose protection ? 
Was there sea, a deep abyss of water ? 

2. Then was nor death nor anything immortal, 
No night was there, nor day of appearance. 
Breathed breathless then in self-existence That One, 
Other than it, of any kind, there was not. 

3. Darkness there was; and by the darkness covered 
Was all this world at first, a wat'ry chaos; 

A germ lay hidden in its secret casing, 

Which by the might of heat was born as That One. 

4. From whom in the beginning love developed, 
Which is the primeval germ of conscious spirit: 
The bond of being on non-being seeking 
Poets with insight in the heart discovered. 

5. Across all things their measure line extended 
What was above, and what was beneath it ? 
Seedbearers were there and developed forces: 
Beneath, self -power; above, its revelation. 

6. But who knows, who is able to declare it, 
Whence sprang originally this creation? 
Afterwards came the gods into existence; 
Who can know from whence it had its being ? 

7. How this creation came into existence, 
Whether as uncreated or created; 

He who in highest heaven looks upon it 

He knows forsooth, or does not even He know ? 3 

1 R.-V. X. 90. 7. 

3 R.-V. X. 81. 5. 3 R.-V. X. 129. 



32 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

This unity takes on an abstract character when it comes to be 
known as Brahmanaspati, or as Vac. Vac was the god of speech 
and was addressed as immanent, all-existent Word. A similar 
conception is found in the Jewish Torah and in the Logos of the 
Stoics. But these were only stepping-stones to the Brahman idea 
of unity. 

This groping after unity was fostered by the Atharva-Veda in 
its turn. This Veda was a re-echoing of popular beliefs and 
customs and a forecast of Brahmanism. Its content was largely 
spells and charms, intermixed with strange mystical verses whose 
atmosphere was very kin to the charms, but whose words were 
suggestive of their search for truth. The gods of this Veda were 
the same, but they had lost their spontaneity and charm, and had 
become puppets of hieratic exhibitions. Their individuality was 
lost, and in its place was the recognition of a Oneness which they 
represented. "The Rudra that is in the fire, that is within the 
waters, that entered the herbs, the plants, that shaped all these 
beings — to that Rudra, to Agni, be homage." 1 The Atharva-Veda 
hymn to the unknown god recalls the unsettled problem of the 
Greeks: "He who is soul-giving, strength-giving; of whom all, of 
whom even the gods, wait upon instruction: who is lord of the 
bipeds, who of quadrupeds — to what god may we pay worship with 
oblation." 2 It was at this point that the monistic tendency — ex- 
pressed first in an objective physical unity — passed over into an 
abstract unity that was not the product of sense experience but of 
thought. It was the search for reality which had recognized a 
principle of life back of every manifestation. Here the monistic 
tendency coalesced with the fulfilment of the brahman develop- 
ment. Its product was a new religion, Brahmanism. 

The Atharva-Veda, in which the principles of Brahmanism 
were incipient, had many functions; primarily it was a means of 
social adjustment. It gave formulae for settling disputes of rivals; 
it furnished a cure for jaundice, fever, and snake bites; it was a 
love potion and it instructed in religious customs. The following 
is the priest's prescription for jaundice: 

1 A.-V. VII. 8. 7. 
2 A.-V. IV. 2. i. 



TRANSITION FROM VEDISM TO BRAHMANISM 33 

Up to the sun shall go thy heartache and thy jaundice; 

In the color of the red bull do we envelope thee. 

We envelope thee in red tints, unto long life. May this 

person go unscathed and free of yellow color. 

Into the parrots, into the ropaniokas [thrush] do we put 

thy jaundice: into the haridrava [yellow wag-tail] do we 

put thy yellowness. 1 

These hymns were a panacea for every kind of ill. Symbolism 
flourished and the hocus-pocus spirit was supreme. 

The Brahmanas are a further elaboration of the ceremonials 
and the spirit of the Atharva-Veda. Here springs full-fledged that 
greatest product of Hindu thought — Brahmanism. Brahmanism 
is a new product because its center has shifted with respect both 
to the object and to the form of worship. Brahman has replaced 
Indra, and naive proxy sacrifice takes two forms: (1) ritualistic 
Brahmanism, as set forth in the Brahmanas, and (2) philosophical 
Brahmanism, the essence of the Upanishads. The latter form 
must be reserved for a special discussion, but the first can be char- 
acterized in a few words. Ritualistic Brahmanism worships one 
All-Being — somber, impelling, lifeless; it is a means of an exag- 
gerated symbolism and a perfected and unimpeachable ceremonial. 
It is sacrifice and magic gone to seed. 

In the Rig-Veda the rajah is the center of interest; for him the 
chief sacrifices were maintained and the favorite god was made in 
his image. In the Brahmanas a suspended judgment must be 
maintained — is it brahman (sacred, immanent knowledge) or brah- 
man (the priest), or the sacrifice itself that constitutes the real 
center and cause of ritualistic Brahmanism? Most certainly the 
priest has absorbed the power and supremacy of the rajah, and the 
rajah is continually more dependent on his purohita (priest). All 
life must rise and fall by the magic touch of the Brahman. 

Whence arose this tremendous dominion of the priest? Two 
new factors now come into Aryan life: (1) the Dra vidian influence 
and (2) change of language. Upon the advance of the Aryans 
into the Ganges Valley, and the establishment of more permanent 
homes here, primitive, popular elements of religion and quaint social 
procedure assert themselves. This may be due to an infusion of 

1 A.-V. I. 22 (Max Muller translation). 



34 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

Dravidian customs, or the relaxed condition of their own classes 
may permit expression of popular elements. Possibly both postu- 
lates are in a measure true, for the vedic Aryans had not gone many 
paces from a naive culture, and the Code of the Manu and the 
Sutras bear testimony of an early intermingling with the Dravid- 
ians. Such an intermingling would increase the already growing 
class-consciousness. But the greater value attaches to the second 
factor — change in language. This may have been indirectly due 
to Dravidian influence, but, however that may be, the difference in 
the spoken language and the texts initiated a new institution. 

The Rig- Veda apprehended the priest as a necessary but flex- 
ible agent of the common good. His appreciation of his value to 
the sacrifice would be commensurate with his own success. These 
priests undoubtedly banded together later for the purpose of col- 
laboration in perfecting their service. They were proficient in 
knowledge of the sacred Veda. Now came a time when the spoken 
language changed; this necessitated a new institution — vedic 
studentship — known to the Hindus as Brahmacarya. This institu- 
tion was practically unknown during the Rig- Veda period. Grass- 
man indicates that this word occurs but once in the Rig-Veda 
texts, and that in the latter part of the tenth book. 1 It seems fair 
to maintain that the vedic study had not the importance that it 
attained in the Atharva-Veda, where there are many references 
to it. One entire hymn is dedicated to the brahmacarin. As a 
small boy he is taken to the home of a teacher and becomes an 
apprentice. He enters with a kind of initiation ceremony. "The 
teacher taking him in charge makes the vedic student an embryo 
within; he bears him in his belly three nights; the gods gather 
unto him to see him born again." The hymn further relates that 
he wears an antelope skin, begs, collects fuel, lets his hair grow 
long, looks after the sacrificial fires, and tends the house of the 
teacher. The period of apprenticeship is usually twelve years, 
at the end of which time he goes home to marry. This period 
has been known to last thirty-two years, or even a lifetime. Theo- 
retically this was the program for youths of the three upper classes, 
all of whom could be "twice-born," but in all probability it was 
seldom carried beyond the Brahman caste. 

1 See Grassman, Worterbuck zum Rig-Veda, R.-V. X. 109. 5. 



TRANSITION FROM VEDISM TO BRAHMANISM 35 

This religious initiation may have originated in more primi- 
tive and tribal initiation. Such, at least, is the belief of Lippert. 
He points out that the Rajput lord was invested with his authority 
through the medium of a forehead sign which was rilled with blood 
from the toe or thumb of a Bheel (Dra vidian). 1 Much of the cere- 
mony was dropped and the painting alone remained. There seem 
to be no traces of initiation in the earlier Veda, but the coincidence 
of the first emphasis upon the brahmacarin's function and the 
revival of popular elements of religion in the Atharva-Veda may 
form sufficient basis for such an assumption. Later Hinduism 
contains survivals of such activities, but how far back they date 
it is impossible to say. The worshipers of fiva and Vishnu today 
are distinguished by forehead signs somewhat like tatoos. 

The importance of the brahmacarin, however, is not to be 
denied. He was the source of resuscitation of the priesthood and 
assisted in its crystallization. The numbers of those who could 
read the Veda must have been increasingly fewer; they become a 
class apart and aware of their own unique position. Vedic stu- 
dentship was the means to the most precious thing in Hindu life. 
With this sacred knowledge the priests had power and control; thus 
in their own beings they held the key to Hindu life. This gave life 
a subjective turn, which was increased by the difference of opinion 
which arose in their discussion and interpretations of the texts. 
In the beginning this discussion was greatly in disfavor. The stu- 
dents were expected to accept the knowledge of the teacher as 
taught. The exclusiveness of the Brahmans is shown in the occa- 
sional stories that are told of lower classmen who desired to study 
the Vedas; they were refused until they could perform a feat or 
show in some way their eligibility. The Brahman is well set off 
by this occupation involving expert knowledge and is duly con- 
scious now of this power. 

This, then, brings us to a conclusion of conditions existent at 
the ushering in of Brahmanism. Caste had become firmly estab- 
lished through development of occupation, particularly the power 
of the priesthood, and through the distinction of conquered and 
conquerors. Caste means color. This custom of setting aside 
the slave or conquered is effected automatically through group 

1 Lippert, Kulturgeschichte, II, 348. 



36 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

solidarity. These conditions and causes are summarized effec- 
tively by Macdonell, who taboos the priest. 1 This unified and 
hardened social system corresponds to the pantheistic aspect of 
Brahmanism; it is a universal system of thought, covering the 
monistic tendency and the abstract conception of Brahman. Sub- 
jectivity of thought is an underlying, fermenting condition which 
came to real definition in the Upanishads, but partially through 
this institution of vedic studentship, as just indicated. 

1 See Macdonell, "The Early History of Caste," American Historical Review , 
January, 1914. 



CHAPTER III 
THEORY OF THE SACRIFICE 

The absorbing feature of the vedic worship was the sacrifice; 
it gained even greater power in ritualistic Brahmanism. In the 
latter the details of the sacrifice were more important than the 
god invoked. But throughout this variation the purpose and con- 
ception underlying the sacrifice remained the same. The most 
naive statement of its meaning is found in the Atharva-Veda, 
where primitive elements had been revived or infused into the 
experience of the period. 

It becomes necessary, then, to study the essentials of religious 
culture as found in the most primitive peoples. Here there is no 
sacrifice in the customary sense of conceiving sacrifice, but a rite 
involving all the intenseness and exactness of the sacrifice. 
These ceremonials are concerned with the clan totem, which may 
be a plant or an animal. A most intimate relation exists between 
the totem and the group — an identity of the two — a kind of par- 
ticipation that insures the life of the community. 

The English expedition to the Strait of Torres gives confirmation to 
these facts. There is a mystical affinity between the members of a clan and 
their totem. This is an idea deeply impressed on them, and it is evidently 
of prime import. More than once they have said with emphasis: augund 
(the totem) is the same thing as relationship: the same as family. They 
admit a definite physiological and psychological resemblance between the 
human members and the animal members of the clan. There is scarcely 
doubt that this feeling reacts on the members of the clan, and induces them 
to live according to the traditional character of their totem. Thus, accord- 
ing to what they have told us, the following clans are war-like: the cassowary, 
the crocodile, the snake, the shark; the rayfish, the sea-hare are peaceful. 1 

During the communal ceremony the participants enact the scene 
that they desire to have follow, and they act like the totem 
animal. Such dramatic activities precede the hunt or the fish- 
ing expedition. The totem is the chief food or the thing that had 
at one time been such. Through its scarcity the ceremonial for 

1 Levy-Bruhl, Les Fonctions mentales dans les societes inferieures, p. 285. 

37 



38 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

its increase arose. This is illustrated in Spencer and Gillen's 
very valuable study of Australian natives. The Intichiuma cere- 
monies were of this nature. "The object of increasing the num- 
bers of the totem is, in all cases, such as that of Hakea or Iuriokurs 
or plum tree amongst the plants, or the kangaroo, euro, lizard, 
snake, and so forth, amongst animals, in which the totemic animal 
or plant is an article of food, that of increasing the food supply." 1 

The scarcity of the totem, and therefore the taboo placed upon 
it as a regular food source, gave it an additional value at the feast 
or at the sacrifice. Not only was it a delicacy to the savage pal- 
ate, but it attained sanctity through its power of reviving and 
restoring the partaker. Meat, if rarely eaten, acts as a stimulant. 
The value of food for social unity, for personal gratification, and 
even for relief for physical distress is remarkable. The human 
spirit is much more approachable after a satisfactory repast. 
Appeals for philanthropic contributions are strengthened by asso- 
ciation about a common board. And it is not wholly the bringing 
together of numbers, but the satisfaction gained from food that 
releases the spirit, relaxes the attitude, and gives opportunity for 
play of impulse. "It is truer then to say that the object was 
sacred because it was eaten with satisfaction than to say it was 
eaten because it was sacred and because man sought to worship it." 2 

But the food was not the only source of stimulation in the 
ceremonial. The eating of the sacred feast was a communal meal; 
the emotional element thus induced would act also as an enlivener ; 
every ceremonial was accompanied by gestures and language which 
fixed the attention of the listener and placed him en rapport with 
the participants. There always occurred, therefore, a physical 
and mental exhilaration and revivification of the worshiper. The 
growing significance of the totem, its increasing sacredness, set 
it apart from the clan. It possessed a mysterious and magical 
power that was sought by the participant. Thus arose the gods; 
they were facts set apart as focusing the meanings of the clan. 
The earliest forms of these were concerned with the food supply; 
they were natural forces that helped or hindered the harvests* 

1 Spencer and Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 207. 

2 E. S. Ames, Psychology of Religious Experience, p. 120. 



THEORY OF THE SACRIFICE 39 

Frazer insists that these forms were all related to the " corn-spirit." 1 
Earth, the seasons, the wind, the moon, and the sun were all 
contributors to the welfare of the tribe. Curious survivals of this 
are seen in modern Euporean planting ceremonies and in the insist- 
ence in many places of planting on the dark of the moon. The 
primitive man's attitude toward all nature was social. With the 
building up of the conception of the person these nature-gods gain 
varying degrees of personification. The more flexible the state of 
society, the more such an individualization occurs. But whether 
it be the god-form or the primeval food-object, each maintains 
its sacredness because it has the vital principle, the mana. 

The taboos of the totem and of the sacrifice are comparable; 
the Jewish regulations concerning the meat from the sacrifice were 
most severe ; the uncleanness which attached to one who had broken 
the taboo must be purified with its appropriate ceremony before 
contact with the group could be made again. The same exactly 
is true for the Indian. The sacrifice was a continuation of the old 
totem meal. In the majority of cases it, too, was communal; the 
Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Hebrews thus celebrated it. These 
feasts have undergone many transformations and may seem to 
have strayed far from their original religious import, as instanced 
in the Olympic games, 2 yet the essential fact remained — the com- 
munal ideal and emotion. It is here that a variation is found in 
Vedism, and this may be one of the contributing factors to the 
formation of a special priesthood and to the change in the social 
life that followed, as has been suggested above. The Indian sac- 
rifice was for the high-class individual primarily; it has always been 
an aristocratic religion that the greater part of the literature por- 
trays. This sacrifice grew more complex with the growth of a 
special priesthood; undoubtedly these two facts developed together, 
and it would be impossible to establish which was the cause and 
which the effect. The sacred hymns became elaborate systems 
of exercise, each detail of which must be followed as precisely as 
the drama played at the totem feast. The old means of physical 
and mental stimulation remained: the animal sacrifice was eaten 
and the hymns were the source of union of mental attitude between 

1 See Frazer, The Golden Bough. 2 See Jane Harrison, Themis. 



40 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

god and worshiper. Here usually the myth of the hymn related 
the life of the god — it was a formulation of his characteristics and 
powers which the sacrificer desired to take on. The sacrificer 
wanted the physical power, the courage and success of Indra, or 
the mercy of Varuna, or the joy of Soma. So it was that the hunter 
ate the meat of the lion or drank the blood of the bear that he 
might be like the lion and the bear. How close is the feeling of 
the native who insists that he is not related to the kangaroo but is 
the kangaroo, and the Brahman priest who becomes a god by vir- 
tue of his efficient action in the sacrifice! The priest recognizes 
his social standing in the Pantheon — he is a human god — and rec- 
ognizes his power of infusing new life into the worshiper through 
his utterance of the mystic symbols at the sacrifice. He, too, 
possesses the mana. 

Among the Indians the cow was the principal sacred animal; 
other forms were occasionally used, but the typical sacrifice was 
the cow. Early Aryan nomadic life was suited to the appearance 
of this type of sacred animal. The Semite sheep also appeared in 
a nomadic background. Lesser gifts might be brought to the 
Jewish temple, such as turtledoves. In the same manner a rice 
offering was sometimes made in the Indus Valley. When the 
Aryans came to the Ganges Valley and took on their new life of a 
more agricultural turn, the rice was frequently brought, and occa- 
sionally a goat. The horse sacrifice was the privilege of the rajah. 
The prime importance of the cow is seen also in the accessories 
of the sacrifice, ghee (butter) and milk. Each one of these has 
a special function, being used to pour into the fire or to sanctify 
the altar by being smeared over its posts. To the Hindu the 
essentials of the sacrifice were (i) the cow, (2) the fire, and (3) the 
soma. Fire has always been an object of awe and attention and 
has been granted purificatory and transforming power by many 
peoples. It becomes an object of worship itself; among the Indians 
Agni was second only to Indra. It is the chief god of the priests ; 
it shares with him the function of making the god one with the 
worshiper. It changes the material sacrifice, while the priest 
through his formulae of mystic phrases centers the attention of 
the sacrificer. It has been always closely associated with the idea 



THEORY OF THE SACRIFICE 41 

of generation. As the early philosophers said, " Through tapas 
(heat) was generation, creation began." Creation was a sacrifice, 
it is to be remembered; and creation is a becoming other than is. 
Heraclitus the Obscure presents a similar service of tire when he 
makes it the symbol of his system of becoming. 

A second factor of the sacrifice is soma — the fermented juice 
of the soma plant. In the Atharva-Veda it is called the "primeval 
soul of the sacrifice." 1 Soma is worshiped as a special divinity 
and concludes the process of transformation. Soma was poured 
over the sacrifice and also served as a drink for the sacrificer. Indra 
was the great soma-drinker ; it was the source of his power and joy. 
" Indra who in the wild delights of Soma juice considers well all 
holy Laws among the gods." 2 Indra, whom Sacrifice shall 
strengthen, Soma, and song, and hymn and praises and devotion. 
Whom dawn shall strengthen when the night departeth, Indra 
whom days shall strengthen, months and autumns." 3 But what 
is really here is the reflection of the effervescent illusion that the 
sacrificer experiences upon drinking the fermented soma juice. 
He is re-created in this process; his body is energized; his mind is 
quickened. "The sacrifice is a constant increasing of energy," 
says Oltramare. 4 This method is more effective than the simple 
eating of food; the results are obtained more rapidly and more 
surely. Soma service was in some senses an improvement over 
the old totem feast. Where the clan is beginning to break up, a 
stronger agent is necessary to produce the religious attitude, either 
from the side of the food and drink or from that of the hypnotic 
power of the priest or medicine man. This is simply saying that 
tenser methods must be used for focusing attention upon " collective 
representations." Through the sacrifice there is re-established 
an association with the god. This condition is most accurately 
borne out in the communal sacrifice, for conditions of attention 
are there easier to obtain. This attention reconstructs the group 
spirit. Other types of sacrifice accomplish this in a lesser degree; 
thus it is not to be expected that the aristocratic and individual 

1 A.-V. IX. 2. 10. * R.-V. VIII. 32. 28. 

3 R.-V. VI. 38. 4. 

4 P. Oltramare, Les Idees theosophiques dans I'lnde, p. 24. 



42 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

religious service of the Hindus could be as effective as the more 
concentrated types. 

But the vital thing to be remembered is that through the sacri- 
fice not only the worshiper but the god comes to new life. It is 
not simply the cow, the sacred animal, that dies on the altar. It is 
the god that gives up his life that the sacrificer may be born again. 
Just as the primitive man ate his totem, so the Semites ate their 
god, testifies Robertson Smith. 1 This theory is corroborated for 
the Greeks in the Dionysius worship. 2 But it is not necessary to 
bring such analogies to support this theory for Hindu worship; 
the Hindu frankly tells you that he eats his god. The Rig-Veda 
furnishes many expressions of the similitude of their favorite god, 
Indra, and the bull; furthermore, Indra is called the bull, is identi- 
fied with the bull. Then it is Indra as well as the bull that dies on 
the altar. " Sacrificial butter he bears ; ghee is his seed ; thousand- 
fold prosperity — -that they call the sacrifice: the bull, clothing 
himself in Indra's form — let him, gods, come propitious to us, 
being given. Indra's force, Varuna's two arms, the Acvins' two 
shoulders, of the Maruts his hump: they who are wise, poets, who 
are skillful call him Brihaspati brought together." 3 The god is 
not fully destroyed on the altar; this same hymn tells us that the 
" sacrifice burns him not." The sacrifice is a means of transform- 
ing, making better; it permits the giving out of the life-principle 
which is in everything and can never be destroyed, though it may 
be transformed. "Do ye, releasing the seed of the being, assign 
progress to the sacrificer, O gods." 4 This form of worship illus- 
trates the oneness of all life quite as much as the totem belief. 
Man and god are not clearly discriminated here ; nor are the animal 
and the god distinguished clearly, which is a conception no more 
singular than the totem idea. 

The greatest product of the sacrifice is a re-created god. The 
god rises out of his ashes a different and greater manifestation of 
the life -principle. Not that these worshipers are conscious of the 
thing that happens, at least, fully conscious. The life-principle is 

1 See Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites. 

2 Cf. Jane Harrison, Themis. 

3 A.-V. IX. 4. 7- 8. 4 A.-V. II. 34- 2. 



THEORY OF THE SACRIFICE 43 

a felt-something back of everything which gains different forms at 
different times. The process is quite a subjective one and is merely 
induced by the sacrificer. Through the process of the sacrifice the 
worshiper is put in an attitude or mood that fosters reconstructive 
thought. That is to say, he is made one with his group and is 
placed in an emotional attitude which fosters conceptional activity. 
Out of this mental state a new conception or feeling of divinity 
emerges. This takes the line of least resistance; that is, it is formu- 
lated by his social situation and social needs and desires. The old 
concept dies to give place to the new; the god-form dies to be res- 
urrected in new form in due time. It is not a coincidence that it 
was at the season of the Feast of the Passover that the Christ died 
and was raised again on the third day. Without such death and 
resurrection, without such remodeling of group-consciousness, we 
should indeed perish. 

It is through such an evolution of group-consciousness with the 
sacrifice as its vehicle that Indian religious thought has come. 
The sacrifice was the vehicle of the development of the monistic 
tendency — that long journey from Indra to Prajapati and Brah- 
manaspati. The sacrifice also transformed the life-principle (after 
centuries of experiment) from a cosmic energy to a sacred wisdom 
that dwells not with every individual, it is true, but within the 
revered priest. 

But it is now that a change occurs in the valuation and conse- 
quently in the function of the sacrifice in the development of Hindu 
thought. The Indian priests began to recognize, consciously or 
unconsciously, that the secret of their power lay in their control 
of the sacrifice; for the sacrifice had been the source of inspiration 
and spiritual renewal, as also of material goods. The priesthood 
in seeking for the means of perfecting its vocation came to center 
attention upon the sacrifice. Whenever an activity, social or indi- 
vidual, becomes the victim of introspection and analysis, it suffers 
the fate of a dissected organism; life escapes and only the skeleton 
and mute organs remain. It is with this feeling that H. Fielding 
Hall writes, "Forms and ceremonies are but the tombs of dead 
truths." This consciously or unconsciously introspective attitude 
of the priesthood is evidenced by the development during this 



44 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

period of the caste system from the freer classes of society of 
earlier times. Thus, with ritualistic Brahmanism, Hindu experi- 
ence reaches a stage of arrested development. 

SACRIFICIAL OR RITUALISTIC BRAHMANISM 

Up to this point Hindu life had been of one growth; social con- 
ditions had been changing and religious ideas maturing. This 
arrestment appears (i) in social conditions, (2) in the type of god- 
conception, (3) in the form of worship. In the first case, social 
distinction, friction, and competition became the subject of rigid 
definition and law, which was framed in the Grihya Sutras and the 
Code of Manu. This was the formulation of the caste system, 
which is a perfected social habit against which there is no power 
of reconstruction. In the second case, the religious culmination 
in pantheism illustrates a completed concept. There is no element 
within such a being that is imperfect and that could be a factor 
in reconstruction. Pantheism is an empty universal, just as caste 
is. In the third place, the method, the sacrifice, became an end 
in place of a means of worship; the mechanism itself gradually 
became the center of interest; the sacrifice became so elaborate 
and so completely defined, so unchangeable in every point, that 
again progress was impossible. 

In the Rig- Veda the sacrifice had been pretty flexible; it lent 
itself to the whims and inspiration of the priest and worshiper, 
and, as stated before, it was the vehicle of changing conceptions 
and of progress and of religious consciousness. With ritualistic 
Brahmanism there is a transition. In the Atharva-Veda, and the 
Brahmanas particularly, Brahman had been identified with every- 
thing — the gods, the earth and its elements, the visible heavens, 
unseen forces — that is to say, everything objective. In ritualistic 
Brahmanism the Brahman of the Upanishads had not completely 
emerged, and the old gods were fast losing their hold. These gods 
were brought to earth and made to assume the function of the priest; 
Indra, Agni, Varuna, Savitar, and the other gods in turn are made 
to officiate at the sacrifice just as the priest would do. " 'Agni's 
priestly duty, that means salvation' — the means of salvation 
assuredly is the sacrifice; 'may he know the sacrifice' is what he 



THEORY OF THE SACRIFICE 45 

thereby says." 1 The next step is taken when the tables are turned 
and the priests are called human gods. "And this the true knowl- 
edge belongs to the gods alone, and indeed whoever knows this is 
not a man, but one of the gods." 2 "For to the Brahman belongs 
the fulfilment of wishes; it is with the fulfilment of wishes he (Brah- 
man) thus endows him (the sacrifice)." 3 Thus the gods and priests 
are put on a par. The priests had been the adjusters and commen- 
tators on the sacrifice. They perfected it, until finally came the 
idea that the formulae of the sacrifice must not be changed in the 
slightest manner. It became all-perfect, all-wise, and all-powerful. 
Neither gods nor men could trifle with it. "The sacrifice fled 
away from the gods. The gods called out after it, 'Listen to 
to us! come back to us!' It replied, 'So be it!' and returned to the 
gods; and with what had thus returned to them, the gods wor- 
shiped; and by worshipping with it became the gods they now 
are." 4 "The sacrifice came to be; it came to be here; it was propa- 
gated; it increased again; it became overlord of the gods; let it 
assign wealth to us." 5 But the chief argument for the supremacy 
of the sacrifice in this period is the small emphasis that is given the 
gods, the want of consideration of the habits, lives, and character- 
istics of the gods. They become figureheads. On the other hand, 
the sacrifice is the only topic of discussion; to know its details 
completely and to follow these exactly is the whole duty of the 
priest. The sacrificial activity has become an abstraction; its 
content, the gods, has been lost or rendered worthless. The sac- 
rifice is no longer a device for renovating the gods. 

Already the priests had emphasized knowledge of the Veda, and 
the brahmacarin's function increased this value. Prior to this 
time they had had a meager conception of brahman as knowl- 
edge, but even this knowledge had been more objective than sub- 
jective. Knowledge was erudition; it was a thing taught, a thing 
taken in, not a thing wrought out of the experience of the thinker. 
This knowledge was like the initiation sign on the forehead; it 
served to catalogue or classify him with a certain "twice-born" 

1 Cat. Brah. I. 5. 2. 1. 

2 Cat. Brah. X. 3. 5. 13. 4 £at. Brah. I. 5. 2. 6. 

3 Cat. Brah. XIII. 1. 5. 6. s A.-V. VII. 5. 2. 



46 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

group, and put him en rapport with the group; it developed his 
class-consciousness. The transition from the stress upon sacri- 
ficial activity to emphasis upon knowledge of the sacrifice is made 
through the prevalent symbolism of the period. 

"Verily, this sacrifice is the same as this blowing [wind, soul]; it is this 
that they wish to secure who take the vow of initiation for a year." 1 "Verily, 
the Agnihotri cow is the speech of the Agnihotri and her calf is its mind. Now 
these, mind and speech, whilst being one and the same, are, as it were, distant 
from each other: therefore they tie up the calf and its mother with one and the 
same rope; and the fire, indeed, is faith, and the ghee, truth." 2 "Now there- 
fore it would seem to follow that both he who knows this [the true meaning of 
the syllable Om], and he who does not, perform the same sacrifice. But this 
is not so, for knowledge and ignorance are different. The Sacrifice which a 
man performs with knowledge, faith, and the Upanishad is more powerful." 3 
"Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools know no higher 
good, and having enjoyed their reward on the height of heaven gained by good 
works, they enter into this world or a lower one. Let a Brahman, after he has 
examined all these worlds which are gained by works, acquire freedom from 
desires." 4 

Modern commentaries suggest that this efficacy of knowledge 
rather than works was the conception of the sages or sannyasins. 
But this knowledge is still quite as objective as the formulae and 
rites of sacrifice. Indian thought is not yet subjective; it is only 
arriving at a condition where subjectivity is possible. The devel- 
opment of caste, the change of language and the ensuing rise of 
vedic studentship, and the hardening and elaborating of sacri- 
ficial formulae were all elements that paved the way for a subjec- 
tive type of thought, but could not produce it. 

All these facts centered about one class of people and were 
initiated by them — the priests; the Brahman's influence was 
largely responsible for caste even though we accept its growth 
as unconscious — and through them the ritual gained its value. 

Everywhere they express the conservative element of life. 
Such conditions are not found in either Hebrew or Egyptian priest- 
hood, each a case of a powerful priesthood. It must be conceded 
that in every class of people there is a conservative element, and 
such conservation is often vital to the life of a people. The pro- 

1 Cat. Bran. I. i. i. 3 Chandogya Up. I. i. 10. 8. 

2 Cat. Bran. XI. 3. 1. 1. 4 Mundaka Up. I. 2. 10. 12. 



THEORY OF THE SACRIFICE 47 

tection of moral and religious ideals of a people is as necessary as 
their food supply, and such protection is the duty of a priesthood; 
yet there must also be regeneration of religious and social ideas, 
and this may likewise be the duty or opportunity of the priest- 
hood. It was the prophets of Israel that led them to moral 
consciousness and that chose a king and leader when political 
conditions demanded a change. In Egypt the priesthood was an 
integral part of common life and not set apart as in India. The 
Egyptian priest was treasurer and high counselor of state as well 
as a religious official and was therefore interested in all matters re- 
lating to the people and the state. Later the Pharaoh was recog- 
nized as the high priest, and he alone dared to enter yearly the Holy 
of Holies and worship for the people. Gods were made and fell at 
his dictate. This union of state and religion seemed to keep the 
priests active and alive to the needs of the people. 1 Not so in 
India; and its history from ritualistic Brahmanism to the invasion 
of the Mohammedans is a story of unsuccessful effort at recon- 
struction. It is with the beginnings of these attempted innova- 
tions that we find the rise of subjectivity. 

1 Steindorff, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. 



CHAPTER IV 

PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 

The first of the innovators were probably princes and kings 
from the eastern portion of the Ganges Valley. Ritualistic Brah- 
manism and the epics were the products of the older settlement 
along the banks of the upper Ganges. The idea that for a time 
threatened this old order of things was the atman conception. 
Around this idea moves that first revolt known as philosophical 
Brahmanism. Some writers see in this movement, not a revolt, 
but a simple refinement of earlier thought. The following pages 
are intended to show that every phase of the situation points to 
these as a revolt. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE ATMAN IDEA 

The Sanskrit word atman has had an interesting history; it has 
had a long history, but the Upanishad meaning is a late develop- 
ment. It has been suggested that atman comes from the root an, 
which means "to breathe." As such it would be associated with 
prana and its various forms, and this really happens. The word 
is found a number of times in the Rig- Veda; in the earlier hymns it 
had the physical and objective sense entirely. It is not strange 
that such an association should have been made with respect to 
self and spirit. The majority of primitive peoples are concerned 
with the breathing process and its relations to life. Grassman 
states that the Rig- Veda gives atman five differentiations; the 
greatest of these is breath. 

"Come like vital air [atman] to bodies." 1 

"The wind, thy breath [atman], hath sound through the region 
Like a wild beast that seeks his food in pastures." 2 

These passages show its very close relation to the gods Vayu 
and Vata, the first of which represents the god, the second the 
element; both are here objective, but their use is sufficient to indi- 

1 R.-V. I. 37. 7. 2 R.-V. VII. 87. 2. 

48 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 49 

cate their active relation to nature. The fact that there are two 
gods for one phenomenon may indicate two types of conception, 
the one freer and more comprehensive, a step nearer a spirituali- 
zation than the other. A finer degree of feeling is shown in the 
following: here it is essentially the body-breath, the life-breath: 
"Where is the blood of earth, the life [atman], the spirit." 1 

"Raiment is body, food [atman] is life, and healing ointment 
giveth strength." 2 

"The Sun receive thine eye, the wind [atman] thy Spirit." 3 

It is the later collection of the Rig- Veda that is particularly respon- 
sible for this advance; and the third conception of life-principle or 
life-spirit includes the idea of energy or power. It is now the ele- 
ment that moves things, that keeps them going; it is still an objec- 
tive aspect. 

"The soul [atman] of all that moveth not or moveth."<» 
"He holds the life [atman] of all things fixed and moving." 5 

This life-principle has not yet dropped its magical nature, 
because the priest plainly used it with respect to his priestly fee 
(guerdon), and also for the soma which is called "the soul of the 
sacrifice." Grassman's fourth use of atman is as the spirit of 
sickness. This is a rare usage, but not unimportant when com- 
pared with the history of the thought of other primitive people. 
Dreams and disease are two of the most important factors in the 
life and movement of early man. The dream-factor is the result 
of the breath or soul of another man which has been freed by sleep 
and which visits the first in his " dream." This can wander to 
and fro at will. Some tribes believe that the breath has various 
parts and that some of these parts leave the body during sickness — 
or else it is a new part that comes. 6 

When bringing back the vanished strength, 
I hold these herbs within my hand 
The spirit [atman] of disease departs 
Ere he can seize upon the life. 7 

1 R.-V. I. 164. 4- 

2 R.-V. VIII. 3. 24. sr.-V. VII. 6. 101. 

3 R.-V. X. 16. 3. 6 See Grassman, Worterbuch zum Rig-Veda. 
^ R.-V. I. 115. 1. 7 R.-V. X. 97. 11. 



50 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

The fifth sense of the word is a living body; this suggests Pra- 
japati, the god of cosmic energy, but likewise a living body; how- 
ever, it is impossible to say whether there is any relation between 
the universal and individual aspects here. 

Let Vrita slaying Indra drink Soma by Saryanavan's side 

Storing up vigour in his heart [atman], preparing to do heroic deeds. 1 

The Atharva-Veda does not advance these theories very far; 
it vacillates between the more magical uses of the breath and mys- 
tical phrases that presage atman as soul. 

"May I win a horse, a cow, a soul [atman], O man." 2 

"Free from desire, wise, immortal, self -existent, satisfied with sap, 
Not deficient in any respect, knowing that wise, imaging young soul 
[atman] — one is not afraid of death." 3 

"Again let breath, again let soul [atman] come unto us." 4 

This same struggle between conceptions is felt in the Brahmanas 
and even in the Upanishads. Their hocus-pocus use of prana and 
the essence of being as expressed in atman are strange compari- 
sons. The Brahmanas furnish a whole family of pranas. 5 The 
breath is divided into six or seven parts. Some depart during 
sleep, others during exhaustion, the last at death. There is the 
in-breathing and the out-breathing, the up-breathing, and the down- 
breathing, the forward-breathing and the back-breathing, and others 
like unto them. Each kind of breathing has its special function 
in the sacrifice. The priest must breathe in a certain fashion when 
he lighted the fire, in another way when he poured on the soma 
juice. This matter of breathing was as important as any other 
part of the sacrificial formulae and might quite as easily interfere 
with its service. This degradation of a useful function corre- 
sponded to other practices of the period. That the conception is 
still quite physical and objective the Qatapatha Brahmanas bear 
witness. "The Yagus is the breath, for whilst moving it gener- 
ates everything here." 6 "Yagus is no other than Vayu." 7 Vayu, 

*R.-V. IX. 113. i. 

2 A.-V. IV. 9. 7. scf. Ewing, J.A.O.S. XXII. 

3 A.-V. X. 8. 44- 6 Cat. Brah. X. 3. 5. 4. 

4 A.-V. VI. 53. 2. 7 Cat. Brah. X. 3. 5. 1. 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 51 

it must be remembered, was the rig-vedic god of the wind. Com- 
pare with this the hymn to Vayu of several centuries earlier, " Germ 
of the World, the deities' vital Spirit, this god moves ever as his 
will inclines him; his voice is heard, his shape is ever newless." 1 
But the voice of the companion of Yagus is making itself heard, 
even if it is yet feeble. There is a soul of "mystic import" that is 
trying to define its own meaning as well as to impart it. Its value 
does not depend upon an act of sacrifice, but upon its own inner 
being. It is knowledge, and it is the great eternal principle, which 
as yet is unknown and defined. The one who gains the secret of 
this is ready for eternal life — he ranks with the gods. 

"Who is the one god? Breath and he is Brahman and they call him 
That [atman]." 2 "But indeed the manifestation is Yagus, and thus with 
ever so small a yagus formula, the Atharvyu draws a cup of Soma, that essence 
is equal to both the Stotra and Sastra, and comes up to both the Stotra and 
Sastra: hence, however small the essence of food, it benefits the whole food 
and pervades the whole food. Satiation doubtless is the successful issue 
thereof: hence when one is satiated by food he feels like one who has succeeded. 
And joy, the knowledge thereof [essence is mystic import], is its soul [self — 
atman]; and assuredly, all gods are of joyful soul; and this the true knowledge, 
belongs to the gods alone, and indeed whoever knows this is not a man, but 
one of the gods." 3 

On reaching the philosophic movement known as the Upani- 
shads, the interpretation becomes much more confused and per- 
plexing. The several Upanishads do not agree with each other on 
the use of atman, nor is there always uniformity throughout a 
single Upanishad. The problem is everywhere concerning the 
nature of Brahman and his manifestations; they find him in every- 
thing; he reveals himself in all nature but assumes various forms. 
These meanings range from prana (breath), knowledge of the sac- 
rifice, ether, or the spirit of dreams to the idea of self as perceiving, 
thinking, meditating. The Aitareya Aranayaka Upanishad, the 
language of which quite resembles a Brahmana, gives Brahman 
as Prana. 

Mahidasa Aitareya, who knew this, said, "I know myself [reaching] as 
far as the gods, and I know the gods [reaching] as far as me. For these gods 
receive their gifts from hence, and are supported from hence." This is the 

1 R.-V. X. 168. 4. a Brihad. Up. III. 9. 9. 3 £ a t. Brah. X. 3. 5. 12-13. 



52 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

mountain, that is to say, eye, ear, mind, speech, and breath. They call it the 
mountain of Brahman. He [the Prana is identified with Brahman] is the life, 
the breath; he is being [while the givatman remains], and not-being [when the 
givatman departs]. "Downwards and upwards he [the wind of the breath] 
goes, held by food; for this up-breathing, being held back by the down-breathing, 
does not move forward [and leave the body altogether]." "The immortal 
dwells with the mortal"; .... for through him [the breath] all this dwells to- 
gether, the bodies being clearly mortal, but this being [the breath], being im- 
mortal. These two [body and breath] go forever in different directions [the 
breath moving the senses of the body, the body supporting the senses of the 
breath: the former going upwards to another world, the body dying and re- 
maining on earth]. They increase the one [the body] but they do not increase 
the other, that is, they increase these bodies [by food], but this being [breath] is 
immortal. He who knows this becomes immortal in that world [having become 
united with Hiranyagarba], and is seen as immortal [in the sun] by all beings, 
yea, by all beings. 1 

The Kaushitaki Upanishad also recognizes breath as Brahman, or 
the individual (atman) expression of Brahman: 

Prana [breath] is Brahman, thus says Paingya. And in that prana, which 
is Brahman, the eye stands firm behind speech, the ear behind the eye, the 
mind stands firm behind the ear, and the spirit behind the mind. To that 
prana, which is Brahman, all these deities bring an offering, though he asks 
not for it, and thus to him who knows this, all creatures bring an offering, 
though he asks not for it. 2 

The more magical, sacrificial element is seen in the following: 

He who knows this self which consists of sight, hearing, metre, wind, and 
speech, as like unto syllables, has sons, cattle, and lives his full age. 3 

Or the true self may be revealed through the dream state : 

These true desires, however, are hidden by what is false; though the desires 
be true, they have a covering which is false. Thus, whoever belonging to us 
has departed this life, him we cannot gain back, so that we should see him 
with our eyes. Those who belong to us, whether living or departed, and what- 
ever else there is which we wish for and do not obtain, all that we find there 
[if we descend into our heart, where Brahman dwells, in the ether of the heart]. 
There are all our true desires, hidden by what is false. As people who do not 
know the country, walk again and again over a gold treasure that has been 
hidden somewhere in the earth and do not discover it, thus do all these crea- 

1 Aitareya Aranyaka Upanishad I. 8. 2, 3, 5, 11-14. 

2 Kaushitaki Upanishad II. 2. 

3 Aitareya Aranayaka Upanishad III. 2. 2. 9. 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 53 

tures day after day go into the Brahman world [they are merged in Brahman, 
while asleep], and yet do not discover it, because they are carried away by 
untruth [they do not come to themselves, i.e., they do not discover the true 
Self in Brahman, dwelling in the heart]. 1 

A more refined interpretation is to be found in the more truly 
philosophic Upanishads, the Chandogya and the Katha and Sve- 
tasvatara Upanishads: 

All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that [visible world] as 
beginning, ending, and breathing in it [the Brahman]. Now man is a creature 
of will. According to what his will is in this world, so will he be when he has 
departed this life. Let him therefore have this will and belief: the intelligent, 
whose body is spirit, whose form is light, whose thoughts are true, whose 
nature is like ether [omnipresent and invisible], from whom all works, all 
desires, all sweet odours and tastes proceed; he who embraces all this, who 
never speaks and is never surprised, he is myself within the heart, smaller 
than a corn of rice, smaller than a corn of barley, smaller than a mustard seed, 
smaller than a canary seed or the kernel of a canary seed. He also is myself 
within the heart, greater than the earth, greater than the sky, greater than 
heaven, greater than all these worlds. He from whom all works, all desires, all 
sweet odours and tastes proceed, who embraces all this, who never speaks and 
who is never surprised, he, myself within the heart, is that Brahman. When 
I shall have departed from thence, I shall obtain him [that Self]. He who 
has this faith has no doubt; thus said Sandilya, yea, thus he said. 2 

But throughout the Upanishads the highest development of 
atman deals with the revelation of Brahman as a self. Now we 
must ask what is the nature of this self, and it is here that we would 
show two conflicting views of atman incipient in the Brahman 
explanations, and subtly compromising in their relations. And 
it is in this compromise and because of it that Hindu thought 
recoils to an attitude of subjectivity. The later Upanishads 
record a temporary treaty of peace between a personal, active, 
hopeful self and an impersonal, itemized revelation of Brahman. 
The Brahmanic philosophy may be summed up in the phrases, 
"Brahman is Atman" and "That art Thou." The Brahman in 
this equation represents the older priest view; the atman the 
attempt at a new statement of reality. The contention as seen 
centers chiefly about the meaning of knowledge. Undoubtedly 

1 Chandogya Up. VIII. 3. 1. 2. 2 Chandogya Up. III. 14. 



54 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

its first meaning referred to the knowledge of the priests of the sac- 
rificial formulae, and the object of desire was to acquire power with 
their fellowmen through these formulae. With the raising of the 
problem of the new conception, atman, the priest found it necessary 
to define his ideas more clearly. The history of atman indicates 
that the soul or self was the life-principle, a kind of physical 
energy, that belonged to every member of the early tribe. This was 
given no great stress anywhere in the early literature, for just as 
the individual was submerged in the clan system and also sub- 
merged in the family system of land inheritance by all its living 
members, so the life-principle had been vital only because it was 
a section of the great cosmic principle. Now the Upanishads 
indicate a real feeling for a new type of knowledge, a self other 
than that which the priests favored. 

"He in whom the five beings [senses] and the ether rest, him alone, I 
believe to be the Self." 1 

"By means of thoughts, touching, seeing, passions, the incarnate Self as- 
sumes successively in various places various forms, in accordance with his 
deeds, just as the body grows when food and drink are poured into it." 2 

"To him who sees, perceives, and undertakes this, the spirit springs 
from the self, memory springs from the Self; hope springs from the Self; so 
do ether, fire, water, appearance, and disappearance, food, power, understand- 
ing, reflection, consideration, will, mind, speech, names, sacred hymns, and 
sacrifices — aye, all this springs from the Self." 3 

Not only was this new atman a reality in itself, it was an expres- 
sion of normal, active living and the desires and hopes that accom- 
pany such. 

"And he who knows this union, becomes united with offspring, cattle, 
fame, glory of countenance, and the world of Svarga. He fives his full age." 4 

"He recites the eighty tristichs of Ushnih. Verily, the eighty Ushnih tris- 
tichs are that world, the heaven. Whatever there is in that world of glory, 
greatness, wives, food and honour, also the divine being of the Devas [Brah- 
man], may I obtain it, may I win it, may it be mine." 5 

But the contradictions are so many and the ritualistic element 
so frequently asserts itself, often half -garbed in the new con- 

1 Brihad. Up. IV. 4. 17. 3 Chand. Up. VIII. 26. 1. s Ait. Ara. Up. 1. 4. 3. 5. 

2 Svetasvatara Up. II. 11. 4 Ait. Ara. Up. III. 1. 1. 10. 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 55 

ception, that a study of its philosophy is indeed tantalizing. 
Sometimes it is easier to understand the original atman by the con- 
tention that the Brahman seems to be making against it. This is 
the Brahman's method of denning and defending his own con- 
ception. Undoubtedly the projector of the atman idea meant some- 
thing very vital to concrete living ; whereas breath was real, thought, 
desire, and perception also were most intimate facts of living. 
But such suggestions of value in objects of thought, feeling, and 
action were deprived of force by their Brahman interpretation. 
The priest does not deny the existence of the senses, but he regrets 
the value that the layman puts on these aspects of being. And 
it is in this position that his compromise lies. For the priest and 
sage the self is only that which carries these forms and appearances 
of the real being (Brahman). 

Who is he whom we meditate on as the Self ? Which is the Self ? That 
by which we see, that by which we hear, that by which we perceive smells, 
that by which we utter speech, that by which we distinguish sweet and not 
sweet, and what comes from the heart, and the mind, namely, perception, 
command, understanding, knowledge, wisdom, seeing, holding, thinking, 
considering, readiness [or suffering], remembering, conceiving, willing, breath- 
ing, loving, desiring ? No, all these are various names only of Knowledge 
[the true Self]. 1 

Here the self seems to be more what might be called a capacity 
of knowing; it could scarcely be identified with the content or 
object of knowledge or desire. A later Upanishad says: 

"And the other selves [such as speech, etc.] follow the self, as his people 
follow the master of the house, and as the master feeds with the people, nay, 
as his people feed on the master, thus does this conscious self feed with the 
other selves, as a master with his people, and the other selves follow him, as 
his people follow the master And thus he who knows this obtains pre- 
eminence among all beings, sovereignty, supremacy, yes, he who knows this." 2 

' ' ' Which Self , Yagnavalkya, is within all ? ' Yagnavalkya replied : ' He 
who overcomes hunger and thirst, sorrow, passion, old age and death. When 
Brahmans know that self and have risen above the desire for sons, wealth 
and new worlds, they wander about as mendicants. Therefore let a Brahman 
after he has done with learning wish to stand by real strength; after he 
has done with strength and learning he becomes a Muni; and after he has 
done with what is not the knowledge of Muni, and with what is the knowledge 

1 Ait. Ara. Up. II. 6. 1. 2, 3, 4. 2 Kaushitaki Up. III. 20. 



56 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

of Muni, he is a Brahman. By whatever means he becomes a Brahman, he is 
such indeed. Everything else is evil.' "* 

"Having understood that the senses are distinct from the Atman and 
that their rising and setting [their waking and sleeping] belongs to them in 
their distinct existence [and not to the Atman], a wise man grieves no more." 2 

"He [the self] cannot be reached by speech, by mind, or by the eye. 
How can it be apprehended except by him who says: 'He is?' "3 

"That Self is hidden in all beings and does not shine forth, but it is seen by 
subtle seers through their sharp and subtle intellects." 4 

And in like manner the object of desire is denned and denied. 

"Though thou hadst seen the fulfilment of all desires, the foundation of 
the world, the endless reward of good deeds, the shore where there is no fear, 
that which is magnified by praise, the wide abode, the rest, yet being wise 
thou hast with firm resolve dismissed it all." 5 

"A man who is free from desires and free from grief, sees the majesty of 
the Self by grace of the Creator [through the tranquillity of the senses]." 6 

"When all the desires that dwell in the heart cease, then mortal becomes 
immortal and obtains Brahman." 7 

Thus the Atman which had yearned for a unique and real 
expression of itself through the normal functions of life finds itself 
submerged in the great cosmic principle Brahman. Hence it loses 
its identity and such hope of recognized individuality as it may once 
have had. Just as the meaning and content disappeared from the 
sacrifice in a former time, so the knowledge of the formulae and the 
knowledge of life disappeared from the atman conception. The 
mere form of sacrificial activity had remained, and in like man- 
ner the abstract knowing self survived the onslaught of Brahman 
definition. But in each case it was the last word of the process, 
and as an innovation the movement failed. Atman was everywhere 
knowledge or the thing known or that which they desire to know. 
The Upanishad was the secret doctrine of Brahman or the means 
of attaining Brahman, that is to say, salvation. These terms, 
in the end, became synonymous — " Brahman is Atman." The 
object of knowledge and the knowledge process were one and 

1 Brihad. Up. III. 5. 1. 

2 Katha Up. II. 6. 6. * Katha Up. I. 3. 12. 6 Katha Up. I. 2. 20. 

3 Katha Up. II. 6. 12. s Katha Up. I. 2. 11. 7 Katha Up. II. 6. 14. 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 57 

the same (the object and the subject were one). Brahman and 
the contemplation of Brahman made the worshiper one with Brah- 
man. The knowing and the thing known became one and passed 
(as it would seem to us) into the unknowable, and this was the end 
and hope of the Sannasyin. This was bliss and life(?) eternal. 

"Their deeds and their Self with all his knowledge become all one in the 
highest Imperishable. As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their 
name and form, thus a wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the divine 
Person, who is greater than the great." 1 

'"By the words "He is" is He apprehended, and by [admitting! the 
reality of both [the invisible Brahman and the visible world as coming from 
Brahman]. When he has been apprehended by the words "He is," then 
his reality reveals itself.' 'When all desires that dwell in his heart cease, 
then the mortal becomes immortal, and obtains Brahman.' 'When all the 
ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes im- 
mortal' — here ends the teaching." 2 

"But he replied: 'O Maitereyi, I say nothing that is bewildering. Verily 
beloved, that Self is imperishable, and of an indestructible nature. For when 
there is as it were duality, then one sees the other, one smells the other, one 
tastes the other, one salutes the other, one hears the other, one perceives the 
other, one touches the other, one knows the other; but when the Self only is 
all this, how should he see another, how should he smell another, how should 
he taste another, how should he salute another, how should he hear another, 
how should he touch another, how should he know another ? How should he 
know him by whom he knows all this? That Self is to be described by No, 
no! He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended; he is imperish- 
able, for he cannot perish; he is unattached, for he does not attach himself; 
unfettered, he does not suffer, he does not fail. How, O beloved, should he 
know the Knower? Thus, O Maitereyi, thou hast been instructed. Thus 
far goes immortality.'" 3 

So we are assured by the text itself that when the individual 
soul passes into bliss and unites with the Brahman it becomes itself 
part of the unknowable and undefined; this seems to be the very 
source of bliss; this is purest abstraction for the individual. Hence 
both Brahman and Atman were universal elements just as was 
the sacrifice, though within the scope of individual activity. One 
of the Upanishads even suggests the idea of the senses being illu- 

1 Mundaka. Up. III. 2. 7, 8. 

2 Katha Up. II. 6. 13, 14, 15. 3 Brihad. Up. IV. 5. 14. 15. 



58 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

sion (Maya), a position which the Vedanta later very definitely 
assumes. 1 

Why did the atman idea arise ? An interest in the individual 
as such and an emphasis upon his activities come in several ways. 
They may follow a breaking up of the clan, when independence of 
action is no longer censored by a group-consciousness; also they 
may accompany successful clan activity which is focused in one 
person, such as king or chief warrior. Such conditions are emi- 
nently illustrated even in modern times. Shanghai is called the 
wickedest city in the world because the foreigners are not bound 
by the conventions of their own group, nor do they respect the 
customs of those among whom they live. Thus a man without 
a country is not only a misfortune but a menace. He breaks up 
a situation; and he may rebuild or he may destroy. If he does the 
first, he is a hero; if the second, an outcaste. In India the man who 
attempted to assert his independence with respect to food, occu- 
pation, or marriage was literally an outcaste. Only a negative 
result remains from these sporadic cases; this is found in the Code 
of Manu and the tremendous increase in the number of castes. 
But another method of individualization is seen here ; this is politi- 
cal centralization. This grew out of the early union of the tribes. 
The struggle that brought this about would emphasize that which 
made possible the union ; to them it would grant a new conscious- 
ness of the will and initiative of its leaders. These were the war- 
riors, and from them came the atman idea. And, just so, such 
authorities as Weber and Max Miiller have pointed out that proba- 
bly this atman idea did not originate among the priests, but among 
the Kshatriyans. Richard Garbe has given this argument a popu- 
lar presentation and at the same time points out the very sophisti- 
cal and immoral state of the priesthood at this time. He makes it 
seem scarcely possible that the priests were capable of construct- 
ing so noble a product as the atman conception. Furthermore, 
he cites the reference made in the Upanishads to Kshatriyan 
influence. 2 It seems to have been the custom for men who were 
eager for knowledge of reality to assemble for instruction, which 
eventually became discussion. The kings' courts grew to be noted 

1 See Svetasvatara Up. 2 Garbe, The Philosophy of Ancient India. 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 59 

for such assemblage. Thus in the sixth book of the Brihadaran- 
yaka a young Brahman, gVetaketu Aruneya, appeared at one of 
these meetings. He had been instructed in the love of Brahman 
by his father. At the court he was asked five questions by Prince 
Pravahana Gaivati; but he could answer none of them. He 
returned and reported this to his father. Thereupon both father 
and son went to the court and became listeners to the interpreta- 
tion of the prince. 

In word only have former sages [though Brahmanas] come as pupils 
[to people of lower rank], but Gautama actually dwelt as a pupil [of Prava- 
hana who was a Raganya] in order to obtain the fame of having respectfully 
served his master. The king said, "Do not be offended with us, neither you 
nor your forefathers, because this knowledge has before now never dwelt 
with any Brahman." 1 

A similar story is told in several of the older Upanishads, and 
such confirmation has its significance. It is the prince or king who 
appears most eager for knowledge in every case; the attitude of 
the Brahman is confident, sometimes even boastful. He soon 
finds his inefficiency. The Brahman Yagnavalkya disputed with 
greater power than any of the other Brahmans. He was on a basis 
of free intercourse with King Janaka Vaideha — a rare courtesy 
of Brahman etiquette. But even he was fearful of his power, 
for the Upanishad relates: "Then Yagnavalkya was fearful lest 
the King, having become full of understanding, should drive him 
from all his positions." 2 All this goes to show that the Kshatri- 
yans had the newer thought and may have held it secretly for a 
considerable period before it was given to the Brahmans. Thus 
philosophical Brahmanism becomes a revolt against ritualistic 
Brahmanism and represents a struggle for supremacy of thought 
between Kshatriyans and Brahmans. This accounts for the incon- 
sistencies, the vacillation of ideas, and the lack of system in the 
presentation of this early philosophy. The Upanishads mirror 
the era as it is; this literature was the product of the priests and 

1 Cf . also Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, I, 296-479, "Early Contests between the 
Brahmans and Kshatriyans"; Deussen, Allgemeine Geschichte, I, Part 2, pp. 354 ff.; 
Winternitz, Geschichte der Ind. Lit., pp. 198-202; Bloomfield, The Religion of the Veda, 
pp. 220-27. 

2 Brihad. Up. IV. 3. 33. 



60 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

unconsciously reveals their attempt to suppress the innovation. 
But the Brahmans still held the supremacy in spite of this political 
union, and how much of an overt conflict there may have been it 
is impossible to determine. As a result Kshatriyan individuality 
was submerged by their independence of the priesthood. The 
power of reconstruction of Indian society of this era lay in the 
warrior, but the priest refused to be reconstructed. This refusal 
was not open warfare, we can believe, but a system of conciliation 
and of absorption of Kshatriyan thought which mangled it out of 
all possibility of future development. 

These were the conditions that changed Indian thought to an 
essentially subjective type. The type of life that the flexible 
warrior-spirit proposed was impossible because it met an arrested 
development in prevalent Brahmanism. Thus it was turned back 
upon itself. The warrior failed to find a function and could only 
hold within himself the things he proposed to express. For the 
warrior the world of sense, desire, and activity was what he wished 
to find real, but the Brahman refused to accept this. 

If the object of knowledge or desire, therefore, is not that pro- 
jected by the senses and feelings, what is it ? The thing that the 
sage would know, the object of his highest desire, is that the effects 
of individuality shall be suppressed (perception and impulse), and 
that this knowing subject may be merged with Brahman. The 
universalizing of this object of desire is accomplished when the 
sage through meditation conceives himself as one with Brahman. 
Therefore for the sage or sannyasin to whom the fulness of life is 
meditation, his function has been maintained and his life filled 
with contentment and bliss. The self of sense is a by-product of 
this true self and therefore valueless by itself. The pursuit of 
sense and impulse is of no consequence. The immortality and 
gross neglect of social restrictions on the part of sages are a natural 
outcome of such a theory in its practical aspect. The theoretical 
fulfilment of this doctrine must be that the sense-world is illusion. 
For the warrior who desired to look upon his world and his serv- 
ice to it in an objective sense, not only the v/orld which was his 
life was illusion, but his activity and desire were all hopeless. The 
atman that the princes offered to Hindu thought was stripped of 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 61 

all that meant life to them, and nothing but the shell of knowledge 
was left. 

The Vedanta philosophy, which is the later systematized form 
of this idealism, uses this conception of Maya (illusion) as its funda- 
mental doctrine. All reality is in the subject; all else is illusion. 
Deussen's commentary states this idea thus: 

It was a simple consequence of these conceptions [multiplicity and one- 
ness] when the Vedanta declared the empirical concept which represents to us 
a manifold existing outside the self, a world of the Object existing independ- 
ently of the Subject, to be a glamour [maya], an innate illusion resting on 
an illegitimate transference, in virtue of which we transfer the reality, which 
alone belongs to the subject, to the world of the object, and conversely, the 
characteristics of the objective world, e.g., corporeality, to the subject, the 
Self, the Soul. 1 

He continues with an analysis of Qankara's introduction as follows : 

Object and subject having as their province the presentation of the "Thou" 
and the "I," are of a nature as opposed as darkness and light. Hence it 
follows that the transfer of the object which has as its province the idea of 
the "Thou," and its qualities, to the pure spiritual subject, which has as its 
province the idea of the "I" conversely, that the transfer of the subject and 

its qualities to the object, is logically false The object of knowledge, 

the Soul, thus remains, entirely unaltered, no matter whether we rightly 
understand it, or not. From this we must conclude that the ground of the 
erroneous empirical concept is to be sought for solely in the knowing subject. 

The chief idea of this later system is the unreality of the report 
of the senses. This is one conclusion of the failure of the Brah- 
mans to accept the content of the Self (that the Kshatriyans offered) 
as in any way a vehicle to salvation. The knowing self alone is 
real, and only those that can attain a right understanding of it 
through meditation reach salvation. This meant usually only the 
Brahmans. The rest of society was consigned to the miseries of 
transmigration. Thus we can say that not only were the objects 
that the self presented an illusion, but even religion and salvation 
itself became an illusion except for the favored Brahman. 

This chapter must include an explanation of atman in terms of 
the sacrifice as a mechanism. The watchword of ritualistic Brah- 
manism was "doing"; of philosophical Brahmanism, "knowing." 

1 Cf. Deussen, The System of the Vedanta, pp. 51-54. 



62 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

The ritualist said, "Do the service of the sacrifice"; the philoso- 
pher said, "Know the Sacred Word." In spite of these differences 
the dialectic of the processes is the same. The method of the 
Upanishads was contemplation; through meditation the philoso- 
pher came to the realization that Brahman was Atman. This 
was the means of salvation, just as partaking of the god on the 
altar was regeneration of the worshiper. Here also Atman par- 
took of Brahman; the philosopher made himself one with the god, 
he brought the god within him, and this realization was the means 
of deliverance from all evil and desire. However, this difference 
between Rig- Veda sacrifice and Brahmanical contemplation must 
be emphasized: the sacrifice was a means of fulfilling desire, it 
refilled the sacrifice, it gave hope and courage; contemplation de- 
livered from desire and fulfilled only the great desire of oneness 
with the Brahman — all of which is the outcome of the staticity 
and completeness of the Brahman conception. It reflects quite 
completely the impersonal and static nature of the caste system 
whose product this type of thought most surely is. 

Hindu thought is consistently pantheistic after the Rig- Veda 
period; pantheism has no place in it for a reconstruction. Every- 
thing is now and forever the same. Contemplation does not 
destroy its images ; it exaggerates and expands its picture and 
weaves a mystic mood about its thought. Contemplation pro- 
jects its picture out and away from it. It is reflection that is the 
iconoclast of our mental images. It gathers the concepts up within 
itself, tears them apart, and out of the ruins and ever-incoming 
experiences re-creates its ideas. But reflection is not the method 
of the Upanishads. Union of Atman and Brahman is attained, 
but it is at the expense of Atman which failed to realize itself 
within the Brahman. 

The innovation failed; it resulted in a new form of subjectivity. 
In Atman the Hindus had a new ideal. A hypothesis is subjective 
and ideal until it is realized in experience, when it becomes objective 
and real. No idea is essentially the one or the other; it becomes 
whatever it is according to its functions. Atman was a new hypothe- 
sis of the world, but failed to find expression and fulfilment in 
Brahman. Though Atman and Brahman are made identical, it 



PHILOSOPHICAL BRAHMANISM 63 

is a mechanical relation, and atman never becomes a real working 
part of Brahman. The original atman idea therefore remained 
a thing of the imagination, not of experience. The world which 
this atman of the imagination represented became an illusion; the 
only thing that remained real was an atman (self) that was real- 
ized through an empty meditation, whose method we may believe 
was largely hypnotic. This had no part in an active experience. 
In one form or another this struggle of a new hypothesis against 
a fixed habit plays the greatest role among the causes of subjec- 
tivity in Hindu thought. 



CHAPTER V 

LATER INNOVATIONS 

A. BUDDHISM AND OTHER RELIGIOUS REVOLTS 

In 1896 inscriptions were discovered in Northern India to the 
effect that King Acoka came to worship where Buddha had been 
born. This place was Kapilavastu. The inscriptions were impor- 
tant for several reasons: they established the fact that Buddha 
was a real person and was descended from a royal family; they 
also indicated that this movement arose in that part of the country 
where Aryan settlement was newest. Siddartha Gautama, alias 
Buddha, was born about 560 B.C. ; the legend related that his father's 
desire was to keep from him all knowledge of sin and suffering, 
but that he was unsuccessful, and that Gautama in his twenty- 
ninth year left his royal home, his wife, and infant son to search 
for the solution of the problem of existence and thus to carry the 
way of salvation to others. After listening to Brahman sages, 
from whom he gained no comfort, he attempted to work out the 
solution himself, and the result of his inspiration under the bo 
tree was the foundation of the second innovation against ritual- 
istic Brahmanism. 

The Tipitaka, the literature of early Buddhism, was written 
in the Pali language, which was probably a dialect of Northern 
India. This dialect was taken to Ceylon during the reign of Acoka, 
where it suffered an arrested development. In Northern India 
the dialect became modified along with the change in Buddhism. 
This means that in Northern India the Buddhist texts are found 
only in a mixed dialect and the Sanskrit. Hence it is to Ceylon 
that we must look for the purest form of the teachings of 
Buddha. These writings consisted of dialogue, sermons, and philo- 
sophical treatises on the sermons; but the essence of the doctrine 
is found in the sermons. From the sermon of Benares it is ne- 
cessary to conclude that Gautama himself absolutely discarded 
philosophy, asceticism, and ritual; his was a system of social ethics. 

64 



LATER INNOVATIONS 65 

No reference is made to either a god or a soul in these early ser- 
mons — the way of salvation was the whole idea. The later writ- 
ings were a conservative theological and philosophical treatment 
of the original Buddhism. Some of the Brahmans had accepted 
the teaching of Gautama, but, instead of being converted to the 
faith, they translated the faith according to their own needs and 
tendencies, and the result of this went into the manuscripts as a 
variety of doctrines and contradictions. One of the most note- 
worthy facts of Buddhism is its disappearance in India proper and 
its power and permanence in other countries, such as Burmah, Cey- 
lon, and China. 

There are three fundamental doctrines in Buddhism — Aniccam, 
Dukkan, and Anattam. These are, respectively, the imperma- 
nence of every individual, the sorrow inherent in individuality, and 
the unreality of any abiding principle. Gautama's sermon on the 
foundation of righteousness shows how he attempted to solve this : 

There are two extremes, O Recluses, which he who has gone forth ought 
not to follow: the habitual practice on the one hand, of those things whose 
attraction depends upon the pleasures of sense, and especially of sensuality 
(a practice low and pagan, fit only for the worldly-minded, unworthy, of no 
abiding profit) ; and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of self-mortifi- 
cation (a practice painful, unworthy, and equally of no abiding profit). 

There is a Middle Way, O Recluses, avoiding these two extremes, 
discovered by the Tathagata — a path which opens the eyes and bestows under- 
standing, which leads to peace of mind, to higher wisdom, to full enlighten- 
ment, to Nirvana. 

And what is the Middle Path ? Verily it is the Noble Rightfold Path. 
That is to say: 

Right Views (free from superstition and delusion). 

Right Aspirations (high, and worthy of the intelligent worthy man). 

Right Speech (kindly, open and truthful). 

Right Conduct (peaceful, honest, pure). 

Right Livelihood (bringing hurt or danger to no living thing). 

Right Effort (in self -training and self-control). 

Right Mindfulness (the active and watchful mind). 

Right Rapture (in deep meditation on the realities of life). 1 

1 Rhys Davids, Buddhism, p. 135. 

This is typically a social code of right living. It is in strange 
contrast with his theory of the sorrow and error of individuality, 



66 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

just as the impermanence of the individual contradicts the idea 
underlying transmigration. All this emphasizes the difficulty of 
the problem with which Gautama was wrestling and the futility 
of any attempt at solution. Gautama preached against castes, 
against the ineffectiveness of deeds or of the ritual service. Salva- 
tion must come through the individual; every man must save him- 
self, for faith in the Buddha could not accomplish it, although 
Buddha could show him the way. This salvation was open to 
none who did not renounce the world and take upon him a life of 
self-denial. Gautama disclaims all definition of life or self; he 
takes a middle way which brings peace and happiness. The end 
of all is Nirvana. This is described as Ambrosia, a going out, 
peace, happiness, the end of craving, the state of purity, the un- 
create, the tranquil, the unchanging, the imperishable: "All on 
fire is this endless becoming, burning and blazing ! Full of pain is 
it, of despair ! If only one could reach a state in which there were 
no becoming, there would be calm, that would be sweet — the ces- 
sation of all these conditions, the getting rid of all these defects 
(of lusts, of evil and karma), the end of cravings, the absence of 
passion, peace, Nirvana!" 1 

The ten fetters — ignorance, conformations, consciousness, name 
and form, the six senses, contact, sensation, grasping, becoming, 
and old age and death — were to be overcome before Nirvana could 
be reached. This conquest might be accomplished during the 
lifetime as well as at death — a Buddhist ideal which is known as 
Arahatship. Those who could not accomplish this state before 
death went through a series of rebirths. According to your deeds 
in this life were you reborn either as animal or man. The incon- 
sistency of such a theory they could not realize, and in this lies 
the pessimism of Buddhism. For the later Buddhist this may not 
constitute pessimism, but for the whole trend of thought such an 
interpretation is inevitable. The works of life have their effect; 
the individual must determine his own salvation. It is a dynamic 
power that lies in each person ; this positive idea can find no place in 
the Buddhist social system, in spite of the evident yearning for 
such a conception. Indian social life could not foster such an 

1 See Rhys Davids, Buddhism. 



LATER INNOVATIONS 67 

idea; therefore the Buddhist argument runs: Every attempt at 
individual expression brings sorrow and pain in the end. There- 
fore renounce the things of life ; they are its fetters ; yield yourself 
to a method of suppression; destroy desire, destroy all feeling and 
ambition. The life of self-control and self-denial alone brings 
peace and relief from evil. Therefore also destroy all the springs 
of activity; reduce the self to its lowest denominator — this is sal- 
vation. 

The self in which Buddha believed and which he wished to 
express was the active life of sense and feeling, but he, too, found 
no place for it. He believed that this life was real, that his sense- 
world was true. Yet there was no way of socializing his concep- 
tion. He wandered for years as a student and teacher, hoping to 
find a solution. Finally, during his meditation under the bo tree 
he conceived a plan of curbing, controlling, and suppressing the 
senses and impulses until they disappeared in that unconsciousness 
that means peace and Nirvana. His object of desire was no illu- 
sion, but on the other hand there was no place for it in Indian 
social life. Hence he must keep it within himself, where evidently 
it was to be lost in unconsciousness. This means annihilation of 
sense and impulse, which to him were the self. Buddha does not 
openly accept this. 

The materialists, a small, secret philosophical school, frankly 
destroyed the soul with the body. They consequently destroyed 
also salvation and the idea of transmigration. This was the last 
step in the negative movement of Indian thought. 

This is one kind of solution for the discomforts and pain of exist- 
ence — the only one that can be projected into a static universality, 
such as pantheism. The world progresses through a conflict of 
individual impulses and activities; it also dies by the same means. 
When a higher synthesis rises out of the conflict, when the problem 
is solved through mutual reconstruction of conflicting forces, then 
society experiences progress. But when one side remains immov- 
able, then the other can only turn its activity back upon itself. 
Such a result can be only a makeshift of solution, for no real 
progress thus arises. So with Buddhism; striking against immov- 
able Brahmanism, the self of Buddhism turned back within itself 



68 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

and sought to find its satisfaction in the destruction of its 
dynamic elements. Many contend that the doctrine of Buddha 
does not preach annihilation of the soul; the texts themselves 
indicate that Gautama left this point undiscussed; but the word 
Nirvana in its origin meant "a going out," and the natural result 
of this doctrine would be annihilation. If the soul is not annihi- 
lated, it is at least put in a state where it can do no harm; it is 
ineffective and negative; it does not assert, but inhibits, its im- 
pulses; it does not grow, it shrivels. The doctrine preaches good 
deeds only by the way; its goal is cessation of activities. Nirvana 
then is the zero of self-expression. This is the logical conclusion 
of the long struggle between pantheism and the efforts for recon- 
struction. This struggle was at every point guarded and aided 
by the Brahman caste feeling. In Buddhism, therefore, the atman 
may still be equivalent to brahman, but both have lost their value. 
The God or Brahman became zero and fails to appear in Buddhist 
teaching. On the other hand, the segregated atman, though not 
technically destroyed, becomes zero through the plan of renuncia- 
tion and self-denial. Even in the Brahmanized form in later 
Buddhism, when the gods are mentioned they have lost their 
power. Just as the god-conception developed with the inspira- 
tion and expansion of the individual (Rig-Veda sacrifice) and were 
in that sense identical, so here the limitation of individual growth, 
the suppression of personal inspiration, means the eventual destruc- 
tion of the individual soul and also the god. 

The doctrine of transmigration first appeared in Brahmanism, 
but received greater emphasis in Buddhism. It is a type of doc- 
trine that could live with a pantheistic theory. Each is founded 
upon a pervading, underlying principle that is permanent. In the 
pantheistic system this principle is the basis for all the differen- 
tiated forms of the universe, and in the human soul has its perma- 
nent soul amid all the frailties of human activities. Whether the 
transmigration idea was taken over from the Dravidians, or was 
already existent in popular phases of religion, or arose directly out 
of this era, is of small importance. Pantheism would foster it 
in any case. Any closely knit system such as totemism or panthe- 
ism is congenial to this idea. But while Brahmanism attempted 



LATER INNOVATIONS 69 

to give the goal of transmigration a positive statement, Buddhism 
succeeded only in reaching a negative position. 

The fall of Buddhism was inevitable. In the first place, it 
struck at the social system, for any caste-man could be a Bud- 
dhist. For a time this threatened the power of the castes, but the 
social system was too dead to be resurrected. In the second place, 
focusing of thought upon the self brings greater consciousness of 
its impulses and habits, and the end is quite as likely to be a rein- 
forcement of these as an inhibition of them. Such has been the 
history of monastic orders. Hence Buddhism was destined either 
to be reconceived or to die. Thus Buddhism passed from India, 
though it lived in other countries where it had been adopted. 

Another heretical religion appearing at this time was Jainism. 
In many of its tenets it was akin to Buddhism, but it did not deny 
the reality of the soul or of matter ; it practiced asceticism and wor- 
shiped animals. Its power was very much less than that of Bud- 
dhism, and it has continued as a small sect in India even to the 
present day. This religion was instituted likewise by a member 
of the royal caste, one Mahavira, who was a contemporary of Gau- 
tama. Jainism and Buddhism were only two of many heretical 
sects that sprang up about this time. These heretical tendencies 
came from the eastern and northern parts of India, where life was 
newer and less conservative. If philosophical Brahmanism, Bud- 
dhism, and Jainism can be accepted as any indication, it is pos- 
sible to say that reconstructive and heretical tendencies came from 
the Kshatriyan class. This era was ripe for revolt against the 
deadening doctrine of the Brahmans. But none of the heresies 
employed a method of attack that could compete with the prestige 
and inertia of Brahman ideals and activities. Brahman life needed 
to be sensitized, and this had never been accomplished. Just as in 
the first innovation, these impulses toward individuality and inde- 
pendence expressed in Buddhism and Jainism were associated with 
a movement toward political centralization. This culminated in 
the early Gupta dynasties, leaders of which were Chandragupta 
(316 B.C.) and his grandson Acoka. The latter was styled the Con- 
stantine of Buddhism because he made it the state religion. This 
was also a period of comparative prosperity in Indian history. 



70 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

The contradictions and changes of Buddhism show that the 
original idea was smoothed over and polished into a comfortable 
doctrine by Brahman converts, who could not wrestle free from 
the spirit of their caste. Its negative aspects were softened and 
its pessimism relieved to the extent that its followers took up the 
faith unconscious of the bitter struggle that had brought it about 
and of the irony of their attitude toward its tenets. On the other 
hand, the secret doctrine of the materialists gained no power or 
place in the system. The failure of this second great period of 
revolt further argues that Brahmanism was an arrested develop- 
ment. 



CHAPTER VI 
ORTHODOX DEVELOPMENTS 

Coincident with the heretical movements an orthodox develop- 
ment was taking place. This tendency is recorded chiefly in the 
Mahdbhdrata, which was probably under construction before Bud- 
dhism, and the Bhagavadgitd. The Mahdbhdrata was well known 
to Panini in the fourth century B.C., though it was not completed 
until the period of the renaissance, about 600 a.d. This poem is 
the scriptures for all sects of early Hinduism. The great god is 
Brahman, the All-God, but its pantheon (for it has a pantheon) 
has changed much from that of the Rig-Veda. No god has any 
great power, but the change that occurs in the list of gods indicates 
that Brahmanism is undergoing an unconscious change. Two of 
the new gods are Dharma (duty) and Kama (desire); Indra has 
lost much of his pomp, though still the warrior's defender; Varuna 
too has faded, and Soma is almost forgotten. Have the Aryans 
lost their inspiration ? The sectarian religions affect strongly the 
old objects of worship; the sacrifice has lost much of its god- 
compelling aspect. Dharma and Kama undoubtedly express facts 
that were much closer than the ideas associated with the old gods. 

But many other factors enter into this early Hinduism: asceti- 
cism was greatly emphasized; the yogi became a juggler and charla- 
tan; his acts were looked upon with awe. Alongside this asceticism 
the grossest immorality flourished. "There were doubtless good 
and bad priests, but the peculiarity of the epic priest, rapacious 
and lustful, is that he glories in his sins." 1 The sects favored 
" heavens," and each god had his own; this idea existed at the 
same time with transmigration and the pantheistic doctrine. The 
epic covered many ancient rites and superstitions, fetishism in- 
cluded. Idolatry and tree worship were initiated. Great devo- 
tion to the law existed at the same time with the most out-and-out 
disregard of it. This new religion that was superseding and 
absorbing Brahmanism was multiform; it was one great jungle; 

1 Hopkins, Religions of India, p. 353. 

7i 



72 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

it absorbed everything. This Vaisnavism was a religious reform, 
like Buddhism and Jainism. It covered many centuries and 
appeared under many forms. Bhandarkar says: 

Its early name was Ekantika Dharma, or the religion of a single-minded 
love, and devotion to One. In its background stood the Bhagavadgltd, a 
discourse professing to be preached by Vasudeva-Krishna. It soon assumed 
a sectarian form and was called the Pancaratra or Bhagavata religion. It 
was professed by a tribe of Kshatriyans of the name of Savata and was noticed 
by Megasthenes about the end of the fourth century before Christ as the re- 
ligion of such a specific people. 1 

Another form under which this worship appeared was the 
Narayana faith; it here identified Vasudeva and Narayana. The 
Bhagavadgltd contributes the conception of bhakti, a fervent, pas- 
sionate attachment — a conception which puts an entirely new 
personal element into Hindu religious expression. This conception 
may have been a Christian contribution, but it is impossible to 
determine this. 2 After the Christian era Vaisnavism became 
related to the Krishna worship, a religious system of the cowherds, 
the Abhiras, a foreign tribe. It continued until the eighth cen- 
tury a.d., when, after a struggle with the monism and world- 
illusion theory of Samkaracarya, Ramanuja revived the bhakti 
religion. Another line of religious development appeared in the 
Rudra-£iva worship. During the renaissance period the popular 
worship was expressed in the trinity, Vishnu, ^iva, and Brahman. 
These gods are no longer nature-gods but quite anthropomorphic. 
This early Hinduism was so assimilative that it accepted every- 
thing that the people favored. It brought no opposition; it sim- 
ply accepted all ideas without distinctions. Brahmanism, while 
quite like this, always remolds these ideas to suit its pantheism. 

It was because this Ekantika religion was so conservative that it gradu- 
ally made its way into Hindu society in general, though it did not succeed in 
uprooting the religion of sacrifice. Still it always retained its character as 
a religion for women and for all castes, Stidras included, and in its later devel- 
opment it was associated with such Vedic rites as then remained when it was 
professed by the Brahmans, but not so associated when its followers were of 
lower castes, among whom it continued to exercise great influence. 3 

1 Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Qaivism, and Minor Religious Systems, p. 87. 

2 Macnicol, Indian Theism, p. 272. 

3 Bhandarkar, Vaisnavism, Qaivism, and Minor Religious Systems, p. 30. 



ORTHODOX DEVELOPMENTS 73 

It is supposed that the Mahdbhdrata was originally the work 
of a low-caste man, and Garbe contends that the bhakti idea also 
was introduced by a Kshatriyan, Krishna. But as usual the mate- 
rials were remodeled by the Brahmans. These injections into the 
orthodox system indicate how intense was the need for some kind 
of expression of concrete life. The development of such ideas as 
bhakti and the personality found in the trinity shows that they 
were capable of conceptions that, if permitted free rein, might 
have developed into as fine ideas as those of Western religions. 
But these ideas were continually bound by the old caste restric- 
tions and formulations. These ideas were constructive, but their 
life was warped. In the heretical religions the conceptions were 
largely destructive and grew rapidly. 

These orthodox remodelings expressed a very meager, often 
primitive, unsatisfactory, yet objective outlet of self -consciousness. 
It was an effort to get everyday thought and feeling into their 
ideal values — an effort to give to concrete living reality and power. 
Self-consciousness in Indian thought since Brahmanism was almost 
completely subjective, but the popular elements insisted upon 
some place in the system. The Kshatriyan attempted to function 
in contradiction to the priests and failed. These positive results 
of Hinduism were accomplished because these innovators succeeded 
in getting their ideas unostentatiously before the Brahman. This 
movement was gradual and probably unconscious. 

During the renaissance (about 400-1000 a.d.) this objective 
expression of self-consciousness was carried farther in the process 
by the building up of physical objects through the Indian efforts at 
science and expression of social phenomena through the literature. 
Again it was the Brahman that was principally the medium of 
expression. Now the Kshatriyan had learned to further his own 
interests by means of the Brahman; royalty remained in the back- 
ground as patron and supporter. This rejuvenation occurred just 
after the political centralization of the Gupta dynasty of the early 
fourth century a.d. 

How much foreign invasion directed this rebirth it is impossible 
to say. But the princes seemed at last to have learned their lesson; 
in order to realize their ideals and desires they must needs work 



74 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

through the priest rather than against him. Hence, here are the 
beginnings of optimistic, objective self-expression found in a prom- 
ising science and in understanding of personality, meager as it is, 
as illustrated in the trinity. 

What might have been the conclusion of this positive move- 
ment under favoring political conditions it is impossible to say. 
But already the Scythians were pouring in from the northwest, 
and about iooo a.d. the Mohammedans invaded the country. 
From that time forward India was the scene of both foreign and 
native struggle. Hinduism is very much what it was during the 
renaissance, and Brahmanism still holds a powerful place. Its 
stamp of subjectivity and pessimism remain even today the essen- 
tial fact of all Indian thought. 



CHAPTER VII 
SUMMARY 

Let us retrace the line of development of subjectivity. The 
first period is thoroughly objective — a difference which fixes more 
sharply the problem of the causes of the rise of subjectivity. The 
Aryans were in migration and at war with the native Dravidians. 
They had lived in close clan organization, but added freedom and 
initiative came with this looser type of life. An appreciation of 
the objective world is illustrated by their nature-gods and the first 
tendency toward personality in these gods. However, the group 
spirit was stronger than any individual force. The warrior was 
supreme; Indra, the war-god, was leader of the pantheon. Religion 
was a part of the warrior's daily routine, and certain men served 
especially in this capacity of priest and became quite expert. 
Every phase of society had its particular function exercised freely. 

The priest grew in power through the specialization of his 
function. Nomadic life was as responsible for this as for the 
emphasis on the function of the warrior. After the Aryans began 
to colonize the eastern part of India along the Ganges, the tribes 
united and settled down to a life of comfort. Here the warrior 
lost much of function, while the office of the priest was quite as 
valuable as before. He became supreme in this period and 
unconsciously assisted in the formation of the caste system. He 
emphasized his own occupation and he emphasized himself as 
" twice-born," which set him off in the first place from every other 
function of the group, and in the second place from the conquered 
" once-born" Dra vidian or serf. The inertia induced by this warm, 
fruitful climate assisted in this swamping of individual interest 
and power. The priest expressed his particular function through 
the sacrifice which was the vehicle for some telling transformations 
in this period. The company of gods gradually changed to an 
All-God and a pantheistic view of the universe; the brahman devel- 
oped from an objective lifting up of the accessories of the sacrifice 
to the great god which was offered in the same way. The first and 

75 



76 THE ORIGIN OF SUBIECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

second tendencies merged in the final idea of Brahman. At the 
same time the vehicle was being improved and elaborated so that 
it too became an object of worship; then the sacrifice lost its real 
function in society. The sacrificer was raised to self-consciousness 
when he could set himself over against the god of the sacrifice. 
When he partook of the god he gained a new self — he gained more 
of the vital element. No such new object of knowledge or desire 
can be obtained without its attempting to express itself. In the 
case of the sacrifice this became the reconceived god. For the 
Rig- Veda period this god pleased the senses and the feeling; he 
appeared in Nature, which was real and live; he gave the joy of 
dawn, the contentment of the evening, and the peace or fear of 
the night. These gods were known to all the senses of man. 

But in the new land there appeared a " Pharaoh who knew not 
Joseph." In the permanent settlement of Western India the war- 
rior lost his function; he was the nominal ruler still. But the 
priest did not need protection now, the land and homes did not 
need to be fought for, and the service of the warrior became 
an abstraction to him. Consequently when the princes pro- 
posed the atman idea, which to them was rilled with the joy of 
sense and the satisfaction of activity, which to them was real and 
vital, the Brahmans took it over and made an abstraction of it. 
The knowing subject was no longer a thing that saw, heard, warred, 
and ruled, but merely a vehicle of erudition, which vehicle could 
really not be known. Just so the later sacrifice became merely a 
mechanism for carrying out elaborate and fixed formulae. Brah- 
man the god, which is identified with self, is quite abstract, uni- 
versal, and unchanging. This abstract self of the Brahman priest 
was capable of receiving any amount or sort of knowledge; the 
capacity of the vedic student was all-absorbing; the usual brahma- 
carin was little more than a mirror of vedic tradition. He did not 
add to the store. Even so the All- God Brahman was everything 
that was or ever could be. This god could absorb everything, 
but could create nothing. However, it is not to be supposed that 
the Brahman priest arrived at this way of thinking from his use 
of the Kshatriyan attitude. For centuries he had been learning 
the Veda and performing the sacrifice; undoubtedly these priests 



SUMMARY 77 

early came to a class-consciousness. Later the seers in the medi- 
tations of their old age arrived at the idea that knowledge of sac- 
rificial rites was alone sufficient. Just as the sacrifice was sacred 
and worshiped, so this knowledge came to be sacred. This knowl- 
edge was universal among the priesthood, and hence can never be 
really described as subjective. But what is this self that can know 
the knowledge; what was originally there that could know ? This 
vehicle of knowledge was the real soul, but it could never be known; 
it had to be individual. But this soul that alone did not pass 
away was the only reality — this was Brahman. A later philo- 
sophical statement makes this the only Brahman. The Brahman 
is all in each individual. 

Out of such a system there can be but two results. One of these 
is found in the orthodox Vedanta, the other in the Sahkhyan system, 
or in Buddhism. In the Vedanta the self is made up of this inner 
soul which cannot be known, and of the attachment of this soul 
through ignorance to the senses and the will. These latter are 
not real, and all pass away when the true soul is freed from them. 
Hence they are not a part of the soul, and it is a misfortune that 
they ever became attached to it. If the activities of sense and 
will are not real, then the objective world which they give us 
cannot be real. So it is that the phenomenal world "in which we 
live and move and have our being" is illusion; the only reality is 
within us — and that is unknown. 

Buddhism goes a step farther and denies, not only the value of 
consciousness, but the reality of god. Buddha accepts the reality 
of the senses and activities of the self — -he advises right aspira- 
tion, right views, control of the senses — for this brings peace and 
contentment in this life. But all is futile — for these all pass away, 
and the unconscious self alone is left. Whether Buddha reaches 
annihilation is a matter of question, but the materialists at any 
rate take this final step and deny any life hereafter, any reality of 
mind apart from matter, and therefore deny transmigration. There 
is one life of this world and that is real. The Vedantists and Bud- 
dhists, finding no means of reconciling their object of knowledge 
which the aroused self presents, turn it back upon itself, and each 
destroys the individual activity of that self. It is only the unknown 



78 THE ORIGIN OF SUBJECTIVITY IN HINDU THOUGHT 

and universal self which is real. For the Brahman his function 
was secure because he was at the head of the fixed social caste 
system. Nevertheless his function had become dead — a mere habit 
pressed by social custom; his function was therefore abstract also. 
The sacrifice no longer created a new heaven and a new earth, or 
a renewed sacrificer and a new god — it was an arrested develop- 
ment. The Buddhists refused to offer up this empty dish, and 
they died from want of spiritual food. They could find no satis- 
faction, no life, hence their pessimism and negation of life. When 
god and the intimate facts of sense, feeling, and will are taken 
away, the leaven of all religious experience is gone. On the one 
hand, this means an overemphasis of facts of sense because it 
cannot matter to society; on the other hand, it kills the senses 
because they can find no value in society. The individual feeling 
and will simply have no place in society at all. 

While the Vedantists and Buddhists have given us great sys- 
tems of thought, they have not been valuable in relieving society 
in general. Hence the orthodox movements of the epics and the 
semiorthodox period of the renaissance have gained where the 
others failed. New ideas were slipped into the old system until 
it was unwittingly remade, and hardened Brahmanism became 
more or less pliant Hinduism. None of these ideas either alone or 
together can compare with the earlier innovations which were more 
in the nature of revolts against Brahmanism. This internal attack 
was able finally to accomplish more satisfactory steps through the 
bhakti idea and the personal tendencies of the trinity of later 
Hinduism. Here just as elsewhere the priests reclothed every 
doctrine with a bit of pantheism, but in the long run it was an 
advance. The renaissance showed how the Kshatriyan had given 
up the struggle for religious independence and had tactfully per- 
mitted himself to function through the priest. So it is that advance 
in literature, science, and great systematization of knowledge came 
about. The Hindu was again developing a self-consciousness 
through a building up of a physical object. But this activity did 
not last long. It is impossible to say what might have been the 
situation if the political life of India had been different. 



SUMMARY 79 

Every great wave in Hindu thought has been coincident with 
a freer political life and with a centralization of government. The 
union of native tribes occurred at approximately the same time 
as the development of the Upanishad theory. The Mahdbhdrata 
indicated that that was not a confederation, but a struggle that 
ended in the supremacy of one tribe. Buddhism and other hereti- 
cal tendencies can be associated with the great Maurya dynasties 
of the third and fourth centuries B.C., while the rise of the more 
enlightened phases of Hinduism and the renaissance is associated 
with the great Gupta powers of the fourth and fifth centuries a.d. 
Such emphasis on political life gives the warrior opportunity to 
exercise his original function and thus to gain a new view of his 
value to society. Added to this line of coincidences is the con- 
tention by many Sanskrit scholars that the innovations in thought 
came from princes; they cite the court of Janaka described in the 
Upanishads, the family of Siddartha Gautama which was of 
royal blood, though not direct rulers, and they maintain also that 
Krishna (in the Bhagavadglta) was from a royal house. To 
this we can add the patronage that the kings gave the Brahmans 
in the development of science and literature. In almost every 
case these princes came from the eastern portion of India, where 
the tribes were yet in a mobile state and life was more active. 

These efforts at self-expression, then, came from a class and a 
portion of the country which was still free. Its purpose was 
thwarted through its meeting the all-absorbing capacity of Brah- 
manism, which abstracted all of the real, vital power of its con- 
ception. In such manner had the warrior's function also been 
abstracted and rendered valueless in the general social life. Beat- 
ing against an immovable barrier, this self turned within to find 
in its own capacity for being all that was real and eternal. Hence 
Indian thought must always be subjective as long as the caste 
system and its counterpart, an unknowable pantheism, can con- 
trol its social life. 



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